Hallucinating

[Penny-Kate]

Hello. My mother has Vascular Dementia and is in a care home. She’s recently had a severe and sudden decline and hallucinations are becoming a real concern. (She’s been checked for a UTI).
She absolutely believes her grandsons and granddaughter are there with her and she talks to them. If this was simply happy imaginings that would be ok but she worries if they’ve eaten, how they got home and then panics. Her dreams from catnaps and sleep seem to be spilling into her everyday life. She is losing comprehension of day and night now. She has a phone in her room and calls me very anxious and upset and the calls can be over an hour of Mum recounting all the garbled details, which I patiently listen to and sympathise with. I never tell her these events never happened and I reassure her the grandchildren are home safely or fed. It must be horrid for her and it’s very upsetting for me. I thought about calling the care home on Monday and talking to a familiar member of staff and asking if there are any breathing/calming activities they can do with Mum.
Is this a stage? I’d be grateful for any similar experiences and tips. Thanks. x

 

[Andrea57]

Hello. My mother has Vascular Dementia and is in a care home. She’s recently had a severe and sudden decline and hallucinations are becoming a real concern. (She’s been checked for a UTI).
She absolutely believes her grandsons and granddaughter are there with her and she talks to them. If this was simply happy imaginings that would be ok but she worries if they’ve eaten, how they got home and then panics. Her dreams from catnaps and sleep seem to be spilling into her everyday life. She is losing comprehension of day and night now. She has a phone in her room and calls me very anxious and upset and the calls can be over an hour of Mum recounting all the garbled details, which I patiently listen to and sympathise with. It must be horrid for her and it’s very upsetting for me. I thought about calling the care home on Monday and talking to a familiar member of staff and asking if there are any breathing/calming activities they can do with Mum.
Is this a stage? I’d be grateful for any similar experiences and tips. Thanks. x

My mum has hallucinations and delusions everyday I have found I just have to listen and go along with it although I found it very difficult for along time but then realised if I questioned or went against what she was saying it would make things worse endless arguments to the point she would get manic. I live with mum so it does get exhausting but I just try to think how it is for her. Take care.

 

[karaokePete]

Anxiety and depression are common bedfellows of dementia do that aspect should be checked if it hasn't been checked before as treatment may help.

If any new medication has been introduced that may be a side effect so it's worth ruling that out too.

There is a Society Factsheet about the anxiety issue and a very useful thread about communication and in case these haven't been seen I've put links below. I hope something of that will help

Compassionate Communication with the Memory Impaired

The following piece was posted a while ago on DSF and made a big impression on me. It is something I have referred to time after time and tried hard to follow. We have many new members who may not have seen it before. Yesterday I posted it on another Thread but thought it might be helpful if...

forum.alzheimers.org.uk

Supporting a person with dementia who has depression, anxiety or apathy (444)
PDF printable version

 

[lemonbalm]

Hello @Penny-Kate . I think it is worth talking to a member of staff to see if a change of medication may help to make your mother less anxious. I am finding that regular med's reviews and tweaks are needed for my mum, who can be extremely agitated.