Hi everyone, hoping you can give us some perspective / experience. Dad has Alzheimer's and has been deteriorating quite rapidly in the last few months. He's very disorientated and increasingly paranoid. He's also getting a little belligerent if disagreed with (which we try not to do). He can't dress himself, soils the bathroom when he uses it (despite his best efforts, bless him), and is increasingly talking nonsense really, as well as having his lucid times too.
Mum cares for him at home without help yet. He doesn't know he has Alzheimer's and is still 'with us' enough to know if we bring in outside help and we don't want to upset him. However I think the time is coming soon enough.
Anyway, our current problem (among many!) is that he keeps insisting he wants to go out for a walk on his own. They live in quite an isolated village but have many friends there - they had moved away a couple of years ago but moved back there a few weeks ago as Dad wanted to be 'home' (they had been renting the house out, so they're back in the house they had lived in for 20 years). He's been out twice since they moved back and each time got lost. The first time was to post a letter 50 yards away and he took a wrong turn, Mum and two other villagers found him 20 minutes later. The second time was yesterday, just 'a walk', and when he returned home half an hour later he was with a complete stranger who had found him in their back garden. After she'd gone Dad was very angry denying he'd been lost or in her garden and saying he had no idea who she was or why she was there.
Today he insisted on going out again. Mum made him take her mobile and repeatedly rang it 20 minutes later but he didn't answer it. Thankfully it turned out he had come across a neighbour two minutes up the road and they had a chat with him and pointed him back home and ensured he got there.
Mum tries to stop him going but he gets angry and tells her he's not stupid or a child and short of physically restraining him which she can't do, she can't stop him. But clearly he can't go out on his own anymore. How on earth can we stop him / handle this? I've suggested a tracker but my Mum and brother think he's 'not ready' (though what has to happen for him to be ready I don't know). Also there's the problem of how we explain what it is to him and whether he takes it if he slips out anyway. Also he's very disorientated and doddery so a tracker's not going to help if he's wandering in the road and a boy racer cuts through the village. Mum suggests going with him but he refuses. She could 'tail' him but that's clearly not a long-term solution.
What can we do?? x
Mum cares for him at home without help yet. He doesn't know he has Alzheimer's and is still 'with us' enough to know if we bring in outside help and we don't want to upset him. However I think the time is coming soon enough.
Anyway, our current problem (among many!) is that he keeps insisting he wants to go out for a walk on his own. They live in quite an isolated village but have many friends there - they had moved away a couple of years ago but moved back there a few weeks ago as Dad wanted to be 'home' (they had been renting the house out, so they're back in the house they had lived in for 20 years). He's been out twice since they moved back and each time got lost. The first time was to post a letter 50 yards away and he took a wrong turn, Mum and two other villagers found him 20 minutes later. The second time was yesterday, just 'a walk', and when he returned home half an hour later he was with a complete stranger who had found him in their back garden. After she'd gone Dad was very angry denying he'd been lost or in her garden and saying he had no idea who she was or why she was there.
Today he insisted on going out again. Mum made him take her mobile and repeatedly rang it 20 minutes later but he didn't answer it. Thankfully it turned out he had come across a neighbour two minutes up the road and they had a chat with him and pointed him back home and ensured he got there.
Mum tries to stop him going but he gets angry and tells her he's not stupid or a child and short of physically restraining him which she can't do, she can't stop him. But clearly he can't go out on his own anymore. How on earth can we stop him / handle this? I've suggested a tracker but my Mum and brother think he's 'not ready' (though what has to happen for him to be ready I don't know). Also there's the problem of how we explain what it is to him and whether he takes it if he slips out anyway. Also he's very disorientated and doddery so a tracker's not going to help if he's wandering in the road and a boy racer cuts through the village. Mum suggests going with him but he refuses. She could 'tail' him but that's clearly not a long-term solution.
What can we do?? x