Getting a diagnosis

[Granddaughterchuckles]

Hi everyone,

Me and my family are getting worried about my grandad and want to get him checked out. My granny doesn’t know how to get him to a doctor without telling him that he’s going to get tested. Is this a good approach or not.

Any suggestions?

Granddaughterchuckles

 

[canary]

Hello @Granddaughterchuckles and welcome to DTP.

You are right - a lot of people dont want to go to the doctor if they know that they are going to be tested for dementia.
The answer to this is to be sneaky. You dont actually have to tell him that this is the reason for the doctors appointment - you could use another excuse (like a blood pressure check) or the doctor may be willing to call it a "well man" check up. Just contact the doctor beforehand (face to face or by letter) to give him a heads up about your concerns

 

[hillyjay]

Canary is right, you have to be sneaky. We managed to get my husband to the doctor by telling the doctor of our concerns beforehand and he then called my husband in for a ‘general checkup’. I went with him and when the doctor asked if there were any other concerns or worries and my husband said not really, I turned to him and suggested that he did often say how he was forgetting things, had he mentioned that to the doctor? I felt terrible but it worked!