The memory clinic in my area is only concerned with diagnosis and they do not organise support. Once you have the diagnosis you are discharged back to the GP. It sounds like it's the same in your area.I asked about my OH going to ‘memory clinic’ appointments as I‘d seen mentioned on here. They don’t have memory clinics in this area I was told. Basically, I sit it out and wait and cope and ‘if you feel things are deteriorating then have a word with your gp’. Thanks a bunch.
Thanks, @SAP. The GP does regular repeat dementia meds for my husband and yes, @canary he can refer to the mental health unit. Both the Gp and the MHU say there is nothing more they can do as OH is already on the only meds available for dementia.@hillyjay there must be something , have you looked up the Mental Health Sevices for Older People (MHSOP) for your mums local area. Most GPs can’t make prescriptions for people with dementia related conditions without a mental health consultation. That said, nothing would surprise me.
Thanks @canary. He’s on the available drugs to slow the dementia which no longer seem to be having much effect any more. In the previous EU country where we lived when he was diagnosed, I had occasion to mention handling his verbal aggression (which isn’t all the time, only when he feels slighted or I’ve said something ‘wrong’) and the neurologist recommended to our GP there that if this continued she suggested he be put on ‘trazodol’ I’ve never been able to establish what this would be in English but I wonder if it was tramadone here which I’ve seen on these threads - or something which sounds similar!I'd just like to mention @hillyjay , that there is a difference between drugs for dementia and drugs for the symptoms of dementia. There are very few drugs for the dementia itself, but symptoms may be helped. You mentioned on another thread that your OH is getting aggressive and there is medication for that which isn't just for dementia.
Why wouldyou run away? presumably they want to assess you current position and see if they can offer any help
I asked the GP for mum to be put on the ‘dementia pathway’…..He didn’t have a clue ….because there isn’t one….!
I'm glad I am not the only person annoyed at being asked how much the house if worth before being allowed the appointment at the memory clinic. The Consultant was well up himself and kept us waiting for half an hour before he would see us, then he only saw my husband for 20 minutes. It was supposed to be a 90 minute interview. We did get an MRI Scan but it was in an old scanner in Cambridge and the scanner gave my husband a bad electric shock, burning his right eye and hand. I didn't think the scanner would show any proper results, so I took my husband a long way from where we live and paid privately for another MRI, which showed he has "NPH" (increased fluid on the brain.) It's apparently the only form of treatable Alzheimer's so I am looking for someone who can operate and put in a shunt to help him. I only have a grown up child living miles away, but he does come and see us and help out now and again. At least he makes me laugh. He has a beautiful looking partner, but she is completely useless at practical tasks, and he is wage earner, cook, cleaner, bill payer and sorter out of everything, yet his partner is in perfect health! My best friend would have come for the assessment, but she is terminally ill with cancer.I had this with my mum. They wanted to know if she owned her home & had over 20k.
I completely lost the plot with them. Flatly refuses to tell them. My argument was that this was about the assistance my mother needed in the first instance. Once that was sorted I would be happy to talk about anything else.
Be firm, you want the needs assessment before anything else.
If he’s already been diagnosed you can apply for attendance allowance - which is not means tested. Also apply for a 25% council tax discount if you’re not already claiming it.
Assuming you are over pensionable age & the house is owned it will be disregarded in any financial assessment so don’t worry about losing your home.
Do you have any family or trusted friend you can get to support you through this?
Which area are you in? Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge has a special clinic for NPH if you can get the GP to refer your husband.I'm glad I am not the only person annoyed at being asked how much the house if worth before being allowed the appointment at the memory clinic. The Consultant was well up himself and kept us waiting for half an hour before he would see us, then he only saw my husband for 20 minutes. It was supposed to be a 90 minute interview. We did get an MRI Scan but it was in an old scanner in Cambridge and the scanner gave my husband a bad electric shock, burning his right eye and hand. I didn't think the scanner would show any proper results, so I took my husband a long way from where we live and paid privately for another MRI, which showed he has "NPH" (increased fluid on the brain.) It's apparently the only form of treatable Alzheimer's so I am looking for someone who can operate and put in a shunt to help him. I only have a grown up child living miles away, but he does come and see us and help out now and again. At least he makes me laugh. He has a beautiful looking partner, but she is completely useless at practical tasks, and he is wage earner, cook, cleaner, bill payer and sorter out of everything, yet his partner is in perfect health! My best friend would have come for the assessment, but she is terminally ill with cancer.
We could easily get there. I will go and plead with the GP to send him, but he is 77, and we have virtually zero medical services left, due to cost cutting here in Cambridgeshire, so I'm not hopeful.Which area are you in? Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge has a special clinic for NPH if you can get the GP to refer your husband.
Wishing you good luck with a referral. I don’t think his age should make difference.We could easily get there. I will go and plead with the GP to send him, but he is 77, and we have virtually zero medical services left, due to cost cutting here in Cambridgeshire, so I'm not hopeful.
I am at a loss to understand that having had my husband dumped solely on my care six years ago with Alzheimer's, an official diagnosis has now been made and a prying, nosey, rude Mental Health Practitioner is harassing us to visit our premises. No matter how many times we ask what she wants, she wont say and we feel like packing up and running away. Has anyone any information please?
Many thanks for that - it's reassuring that that's what they usually want. Because they keep asking us over and over again about whether we own our house, how much it is worth, how much my husband's private pensions are and we have flatly refused to disclose any information to them, they have become quite aggressive and sometimes appear here with no prior warning or appointment. Even to get an appointment at the local Memory Clinic, they tried to insist we told them how much the house was worth - can't really see how that helps them diagnose Alzheimer's myself. I am registered partially sighted and crippled with arthritis in my spine but I manage to look after my husband somehow. No one has ever come here in years and years to see if I am safe cooking every day for two people. Presumably, blind and part sighted people are of less value than those with Alzheimers and it doesn't matter if I burn the house down, only if he does! We have both become too frightened to answer our telephone or our doorbell and neither of us can sleep. I am very scared they are going to snatch him for the money, and what's more to the point, he is terrified they are going to remove him from his home. If they insist on putting my husband in a home, I have not enough to maintain my current address and would become homeless. No body it seems, cares about a carer.