My 87 year old aunt is currently living at my 90 year old mother's house and she is caring for her from day to day. I get over there once or twice a week to help with shopping etc. but I live a long way away and am the only relation they now have, so it's not ideal from my POV.
Aunt had un-diagnosed late stage dementia and refuses to cooperate when it comes to anything to do with her health. My mother is housebound and has her own health issues, but is of a similar mindset and does her best to look after her sister, but refuses any outside help (apart from me). Aunt has been incontinent for some time (usually during the night according to my mum) but they seemed to have been coping.
I know it's hardly an ideal situation and is probably building up to a crisis of some sort. I have been introducing the idea of bringing in some kind of help to get them used to the idea, but it is like walking through treacle.
Anyway, aunt is mobile and likes to take herself off the local Co-Op every now and then where she wanders around for an hour and comes back with a few random items and I don't see too much harm in that as she can still cope with travelling to familiar places and still just about manages to complete a transaction.
However, last week aunt apparently announced to mum that she was going to take herself off the hospital so they could sort out her 'waterworks' for her. It seems this has become an obsession and has told mum she'd going there tomorrow. There's no question of my mum being able to go with her and even if I drove over there I know she would refuse to let me go with her, so we're in a bit of a dilemma as I'm not sure what might happen.
She may be able to navigate herself there OK and it's only about 2 miles away so it's unlikely she'll get completely lost, plus I have a GPS tracker we put in her coat and contact information for me and my mum.
I suppose I'm more worried about what might happen when she gets to the hospital and what they might decide to do. Could they keep her there or would they just contact us and leave it to us to sort out?
My mum has tried to stop her going out on her own before, but she gets quite angry and that scares my mum, so that's not really going to be an option I don't think.
Any advice on what's best to do in this case?
Aunt had un-diagnosed late stage dementia and refuses to cooperate when it comes to anything to do with her health. My mother is housebound and has her own health issues, but is of a similar mindset and does her best to look after her sister, but refuses any outside help (apart from me). Aunt has been incontinent for some time (usually during the night according to my mum) but they seemed to have been coping.
I know it's hardly an ideal situation and is probably building up to a crisis of some sort. I have been introducing the idea of bringing in some kind of help to get them used to the idea, but it is like walking through treacle.
Anyway, aunt is mobile and likes to take herself off the local Co-Op every now and then where she wanders around for an hour and comes back with a few random items and I don't see too much harm in that as she can still cope with travelling to familiar places and still just about manages to complete a transaction.
However, last week aunt apparently announced to mum that she was going to take herself off the hospital so they could sort out her 'waterworks' for her. It seems this has become an obsession and has told mum she'd going there tomorrow. There's no question of my mum being able to go with her and even if I drove over there I know she would refuse to let me go with her, so we're in a bit of a dilemma as I'm not sure what might happen.
She may be able to navigate herself there OK and it's only about 2 miles away so it's unlikely she'll get completely lost, plus I have a GPS tracker we put in her coat and contact information for me and my mum.
I suppose I'm more worried about what might happen when she gets to the hospital and what they might decide to do. Could they keep her there or would they just contact us and leave it to us to sort out?
My mum has tried to stop her going out on her own before, but she gets quite angry and that scares my mum, so that's not really going to be an option I don't think.
Any advice on what's best to do in this case?