Both sad and furious last night as I spoke to my friend late last night once Mum and fiance were in bed. So needed some support and felt really alone to be told I wasn't helping the situation with Mum and was doing too much for her because "with the correct training people with dementia can learn to do more for themselves and can stave off their symptoms"..........really?? Why do well meaning people think they know so much more than those of us who are caring for someone with this disease at home 24/7? Landed up feeling even more alone and drove the car down an isolated track at midnight and cried my heart out listening to the radio for an hour. I crept back in the door, nobody had missed me, and had a troubled restless few hours before getting up to face another day!!
Stand to one side.
Ask the person concerned, to come and show you, how to train a dementia suffer.
Watch them run over the furthest horizon.
The reason I asked you to stand to one side, was so you were not hurt in their departure.
There is a case, for getting the sufferer to fall in line with your routine (IF at all possible) for your convenience. Indeed when taking the stress of doing it all for themselves, is lifted off a sufferer, then an "improvement" is often seen. But the dementia is still there.
In my experience, you only pick the battles, that have to be won. Safety, both personal and food.
The rest...slowly slowly, catchee monkey...get things around to ways, you can cope with.
If that means being crafty, underhand, or even little white lies (great big whoppers) then so be it!
Its in their interests that you are able to cope in your way.
Bod