Where is home?
Oh, I do feel for you all with this thread. I have worked in care homes and it has been so sad to see people trying to get out the door to "just catch the bus home" or, worse, going on a short walk with an elderly gent who then did start to "go home". Fortunately I had my mobile and was rescued by colleagues but only after he'd trekked 2 miles down the road toward the station!! Quite scary - nobody told me he was a highly fit ex-soldier!
So, with experience, I no longer try to distract people away from the subject entirely. I try to balance the "here and now", to reduce any immediate attempts to get to the place in their minds - and people are correct, home often isn't the last place they lived, its more frequently a place from child or early adult-hood. Aim to find out where that place was and divert into reminiscence because this is obviously a really important need in their minds and you need to understand the why of it, if you can Also, please do think how you would feel yourself if you had these thoughts and were constantly being prevented from "going home"?
I have also found two main and pefectly rational reasons for wanting to be "at home"; either its where they felt safe, often because their parents are there or, because there is something they either had a responsibility for or something has been left "undone"...locking up, turning off lights, looking after siblings and so on. Sometimes the reasons for wanting to be in that place are unfathomable, but i have found that talking it through and trying to enter into their minds often removes the anxiety or need to be elsewhere....wherever that may be. And then, once we have examined thoe thoughts, then I will distract with music or another activity. But the main aim should be to dig out these feelings and then you will be able to identify the best way to reassure them that "here" is best after all.