Hi,
My father has been in a care home for over 18m, and due to Covid I have only seen him once in the last year. He uses a tablet to call me on a daily basis, sometimes 3-4x a day.
For the past few months, the conversations have become frustratingly repetitive to the point I sometimes ignore the call, and then feel guilty as I am his only contact with the outside world.
He has it in his head that he either owns, or has recently bought, multiple properties, and his opening question to me is always about this issue, even though it isn't true. I have tried reassuring him he hasn't bought anything recently, but trying to be logical (i.e. it is mentally/physically impossible for him to have done this) obviously upsets him, if I say I'll deal with it I get the same question the next day, and even if I manage to temporarily change the subject he will go back to it after 1-2 minutes + be annoyed with me when I ask to talk about something else.
I'm struggling to hide my frustration and can't work out what the real issue is. I thought it might be that he just wants someone to talk to, but we're now at a point where calls frequently end with one or both of us feeling agitated.
Do I need to accept this is just his way of communicating and go along with it, or should I be doing something different?
Thank you.
My father has been in a care home for over 18m, and due to Covid I have only seen him once in the last year. He uses a tablet to call me on a daily basis, sometimes 3-4x a day.
For the past few months, the conversations have become frustratingly repetitive to the point I sometimes ignore the call, and then feel guilty as I am his only contact with the outside world.
He has it in his head that he either owns, or has recently bought, multiple properties, and his opening question to me is always about this issue, even though it isn't true. I have tried reassuring him he hasn't bought anything recently, but trying to be logical (i.e. it is mentally/physically impossible for him to have done this) obviously upsets him, if I say I'll deal with it I get the same question the next day, and even if I manage to temporarily change the subject he will go back to it after 1-2 minutes + be annoyed with me when I ask to talk about something else.
I'm struggling to hide my frustration and can't work out what the real issue is. I thought it might be that he just wants someone to talk to, but we're now at a point where calls frequently end with one or both of us feeling agitated.
Do I need to accept this is just his way of communicating and go along with it, or should I be doing something different?
Thank you.