Door alarms

[sue h]

Dear all.
My Dad managed to escape last night (2.30 am) and ended up being picked up by the police half a mile down the road. My Mum had tried to stop him from getting up but he was determined to go downstairs so she let him go thinking he would have his breakfast and eventually come back to bed. Which has happened quite frequently the last couple of weeks. When Mum went to check what he was doing he'd disappeared. She checked the garden before phoning the police who luckily have his details already on file. They picked him up quarter of an hour later. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas of door exit alarms so to alert my Mum if he goes out. She said she was going to hide the key but last time she did that he broke the door handle off!
My poor Mum isn't getting much sleep of late due to this wandering and also Dad is extremely incontinent at night and refuses to wear pads. Sometimes wakes up soaking from head to toe. We've managed to get free bed pads but there is still a lot of washing everyday. Any bright ideas appreciated!!
Love
Sue

 

[Brucie]

I spotted 4 door alarms for under £10 at Homebase last week. Soon as I can I'm going to go back and get some as they seem darned good value. They can also be carried on one's person as attack alarms.

They put out 110-120 decibels I think, so should be heard...

Clarification: that is £2.50 per alarm, not 4 at £10 each!

 

[sue h]

Thanks for that Bruce. I'll have a look at the weekend. I wasn't sure if anything was available like that without costing the earth. I said to Mum if all else fails I'll just tie a big hand bell to the door!!
Love
Sue

 

[Sheila]

Hi Sue, we put bolts high up on the doors and also removed the keys at night, having agreed on a safe place for them. It was the only way. We also had baby gates top and bottom of stairs as a deterrent and a lock on the back gate so she could wander in the garden safely. Nightmare isn't it!! Love She. XX

 

[connie]

Thanks for all this info. We are not at this stage YET, but I shall look into these alarms forthwith.
Sue - thinking of you. It must be very difficult. Hang on in there. Connie

 

[Kriss]

Hi Sue

we bought a set of wind chimes to strategically place by the bedroom door. We had been worried that a piercing alarm would have the wrong effect being too startling. The chimes were clear enough to wake my light sleeping Mum but not likely to scare (and positively impossible to sneak past!).

Sorry but I can't say if they would have been succesful as Dad was never to return home from the hospital.

Kriss

 

[sue h]

Thanks for all your replies. I'm definately going to look into getting a door alarm as Bruce suggested. It doesn't matter that it's loud as my Dad is very deaf and doesn't wear his hearing aid at night so it certainly wouldn't startle him. It needs to be loud as they live in a large house, so quite a distance between the back door and Mum and Dads bedroom. Mum stopped following him downstairs at night because it seemed to make him more agitated, she's getting to the stage now of thinking 'let him get on with it'. Self preservation I think!
Despite everything we still manage to keep smiling. I didn't mention in my original post that when the police found my Dad they called an ambulance because he had a cut on his forehead and wanted to get him checked over before taking him home. He'd fallen over last weekend so wasn't something new but it looked like he'd been smacked with a frying pan. I joked with Mum that I didn't want a phonecall from the police saying she'd been charged with assault!!
We never know what's going to happen next. Is'nt life fun....Not.
Love
Sue xx

 

[daughter]

Hi Sue,

I remember when my Dad wandered off during a particular 'sundowning' episode. Mum called me because he hadn't returned after twenty minutes and was rallying the troops to go out on the usual hunt around the local streets.

This time we could not find him and, after an hour, I rang the local police station only to hear a recorded message 'if urgent ring 999'. I thought 'why not?' never having done so in my life, if this wasn't an emergency, then what was?

Another worrying half hour later, they rang back to say that Dad had walked into a police station several miles away (we thought this unlikely but will never know how he got there).

When he came back in a police car he got out thanking the officers most profusely, shaking their hands and smiling! We wanted to shake him like a small child that wanders off in a supermarket but we were too pleased to see him safely back.

You're right Sue, it's a never ending roller coaster!

 

[angela.robinson]

hi sue,i was just reading a leaflet from age concern,BLADDER AND BOWEL WEAKNESS it says health and local authorities are responsible for home bathing services they sometimes provide, orpay for,home collectionfor incontinance laundry and to ask ,GP ,DISTRICT NURSE OR SOCIAL WORKER ,its worth asking ANGELA

 

[sue h]

The district nurse did visit my Mum re: incontinence care, after filling in pages and pages of information all she could offer was free bed pads. Mum wasn't too impressed to say the least.
I am quite worried that there is some underlying cause for Dads incontinence..two weeks ago when Mum was changing his wet pyjamas Dad suddenly said he needed the toilet and with that there was spots of blood on the carpet. She rang me in a panic, she was unable to get through to the GP as they were permanently engaged and they haven't got a touch phone. She rang the CPN who said she'd got to keep trying and to let her know what was happening because if the GP didn't act (she thought he should really do a home visit), she would intervene and fax the surgery. Anyway I managed to get through to them and as usual had to wait for a return call. The following day my Dads GP rang (hmmm) and said he'd write a prescription for some antibiotics and he wanted a urine sample before Dad started taking them. To cut a long story short the test came back negative and Dad still hasn't seen a doctor. The CPN is making a visit next week and I shall ask whether she thinks this should be followed up. Trouble is we don't know if he's passed blood before or since as Dad doesn't notice or understand that it's something abnormal. It does seem strange that he can empty his bladder and then without drinking anything can absolutely saturate the bed.
Sue xx