How to get my father to go to his doctor

[DeltaVee]

Hello, I am new to this so forgive me if I am repeating previously covered topics.

I visited my dad yesterday and was so shocked at the demise in his memory. I had phoned him and arranged to visit, however when I arrived he said he had no idea that I was visiting. He was sitting watching the rolling news on the TV, however after a couple of hours it became pretty obvious that he had forgotten the previous announcements and was really unaware of how long I had been there. He couldn't remember anything about my recent life events, and had forgotten where I live, work and the people I live with.

My question here is, can I approach his GP myself to arrange an assessment? I am not sure how long since he saw a doctor as he gave me three different answers within the four hour period I was with him.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Worried daughter

 

[LadyA]

I assume your dad lives alone? It certainly sounds like he needs looking at. Could he be depressed? Or have an infection? The symptoms of depression can be very similar to the symptoms of dementia and an infection can also cause similar symptoms.

Certainly you could contact his GP - some GPs won't discuss their patient with you, but they will listen to your concerns. I went to my husband's GP on my own initially, and outlined the problems he was having. Then the GP wrote to my husband and called him in for "the standard over 70's health check." and in the course of chatting about everything under the sun, he managed to tease out some memory checks and other things.

 

[NT2]

I've recently been concerned about my grandfather with slight memory problems. You can approach the doctor yourself, as I did for my grandfather. Your doctor cannot discuss details of the patient, but if you raise concern about a family member, they have to take it on board. My family doctor informed me that because my grandfather does not live alone, my grandmother has to be convince him to go to the doctor about it himself. Otherwise, if he lived alone, my doctor informed me that he would be able to ring my grandfather and book an appointment with him for him then to discuss the concern and for him to take a 30 question questionnaire. I'm unsure if this would be the same for your dad, but you can definitely, and should, raise your concern with your doctor.
Hope this helps I'm still trying to get my grandparents to be on board with hin visiting the doctor, so hopefully your dad will be willing to visit his doctor x