Hi, my brother is having his first visit to a local memory clinic in November. He moved to be nearer me about 10 weeks ago, he used to get an appointment at a Nurology dept in a hospital where he used to live. I did speak to a mental health nurse at the memory clinic when the appointment was made and she said as he has already had a diagnosis things will be simpler etc. Just wondered what to expect when we go hopefully no more cognitive tests etc as brother did'nt like them. Thanks for any advice.
Memory Clinic
- Thread starter Jake's Nan
- Start date
Hi @Jake's Nan usually the first memory clinic appointment is to test/diagnose and prescribe medication if appropriate but as your brother has already been diagnosed it might be more of a check up type visit as he is now in their area, to see how he is managing and possibly a medication review if he is on meds. Memory clinic actions do seem to vary quite a bit from area to area though so difficult to know if they will want to do any further cognitive tests but from personal experience with my mum, follow up appointments can be few and far between. Usually once a diagnosis has been made, meds prescribed and a follow up has taken place there isn't much else that they do, they didn't conduct any more cognitive tests on mum following the diagnosis. Hope it all goes well for your brother, and perhaps you or another family member could attend with him as a bit of support if needed?
Thank you, they said appointment could last 90 minutes but as you say not much point repeating tests once officially diagnosed so hopefully just medication review and general wellbeing check.
My husband had to attend a local memory clinic every three months after his diagnosis. At each session he was given the MMSE test (Mini Mental State Examination) and I was given a questionnaire about how he was managing. The purpose of this was to compare his results to the previous one and monitor his progress through the disease. We had to go through the process to get his prescription for Donepezil/Aricept. Eventually I was told his scores were too low for the medication to continue and the visits to the clinic stopped.
I eventually decided that the questionnaire I had to do wasn’t giving me the opportunity to say what I wanted to say. I didn’t want to speak about my husband in front of him. I used to hand in a letter for the doctor a few days before the appointment so that I could give a full picture of how he was and any concerns I had.
I live in Scotland and my experience was some time ago (my husband died almost 8 years ago).
I hope your brother’s appointment goes well.
I eventually decided that the questionnaire I had to do wasn’t giving me the opportunity to say what I wanted to say. I didn’t want to speak about my husband in front of him. I used to hand in a letter for the doctor a few days before the appointment so that I could give a full picture of how he was and any concerns I had.
I live in Scotland and my experience was some time ago (my husband died almost 8 years ago).
I hope your brother’s appointment goes well.
Hello, wishing you and your brother all the best for his November appointment .
My O.H was finally diagnosed about 3 years ago starting with a g.p mini memory test and then a referral to the local memory clinic. We were still dealing with Covid so the initial consultation was done at home with the consultant visiting us and a more extensive memory test.Since then we have had monthly telephone calls to check on how he was with Donepezil before the dose was increased and his care is now shared between g.p and clinic. However in the last few months I have noticed personality changes and as he had an annual review coming up, I wrote to the clinic expressing my concerns ( couldn’t say anything in front of husband during appointment! ) and wondering if a change of medication might help. They have agreed , after chatting to him, and now after checking his b.p for 2 weeks, all being o.k, he is going to start Memantine.
We live in the N.W England and I understand that different areas of the U.K operate differently!
Good luck and keep in touch.
My O.H was finally diagnosed about 3 years ago starting with a g.p mini memory test and then a referral to the local memory clinic. We were still dealing with Covid so the initial consultation was done at home with the consultant visiting us and a more extensive memory test.Since then we have had monthly telephone calls to check on how he was with Donepezil before the dose was increased and his care is now shared between g.p and clinic. However in the last few months I have noticed personality changes and as he had an annual review coming up, I wrote to the clinic expressing my concerns ( couldn’t say anything in front of husband during appointment! ) and wondering if a change of medication might help. They have agreed , after chatting to him, and now after checking his b.p for 2 weeks, all being o.k, he is going to start Memantine.
We live in the N.W England and I understand that different areas of the U.K operate differently!
Good luck and keep in touch.
Thank you, he has been on memantine and doneziple since diagnosis 2 years ago, I expect they will monitor that moving forward. Sorry for the loss of your husband.
Thank you. He has been on memantine and doneziple since diagnosis 2 years ago, I think they will monitor this more regularly moving forward. Will let you know how it goes.
