Hi Margaret,
Just an update to my previous post, and also to add some input to others' posts.
The alarm system on the door has proved useless, to be honest. It's been in for a few weeks now, and last night Gran went on the wander in her slippers for a jaunt to the seafront! She was picked up by the police at 11.25p.m and my mum was called out to settle her back at home again. My mum takes medication which makes her drowsy and so do I so she had to phone my sister to drive her the 25 miles, because we've told her off for driving under the influence of meds before now. The alarm system was set so that if the door was opened after 4.30pm and not opened again within two minutes, an alarm would sound back at the emergency care place and someone would be sent out looking for her. BUT!! You guessed it, it didn't happen. So we have two assumptions to make from that. Either she left the house before the alarm was set, and was wandering for hours before she was found, OR she left after the alarm was set and it failed to alert anyone. We've had an engineer out today to check for faults, the result is still awaited. The social worker who deals with Gran is off sick, so we may hear from her tomorrow, who knows?
Attendance Allowance. Gran was allocated that as soon as she was diagnosed with Alzheimers. She was still capable of dressing herself, she still is, although she now dresses rather strangely of course. She wears old jumpers and tat that she's found in the wardrobe after x number of years and ignores all the decent stuff cos it "doesn't belong to her". Someone from social services was actually useful in that they filled out the forms for the AA, and others too, to make sure she was in receipt of all the benefits she was entitled to. Don't let anyone tell you that Mum isn't entitled to it, just fill the forms in and let the official decision makers make the decision.
I can't remember who asked if Mum and I had had Carer's Assessment, but the answer is no. Social Services have been shown that Mum is in receipt of DLA and they can quite clearly see that I can't even stand up straight to walk properly, but they've not even suggested an assessment. I have told Mum that she should ask for one, even for herself, since she does more of the caring than me (I have two children at school) but to no avail. I think she's lost faith in them to be honest. We've had to fight so hard for so little it's become a chore to her so she doesn't bother.
We started with Carers on a morning, then progressed to an afternoon when the meals where being left on the step, so that someone could ensure she'd had her meal. We've also had the key safe that someone mentioned installed, and we had to argue to get the guy who delivers the meals to use the damned thing. He wanted no part in using the safe to make sure Gran's meal went inside, but that was put right after a rather curt phone call from myself. The lunchtime carer was added after that, more as a check that she was in the house and to make sure she ate her lunch as leaving it til 4pm was proving ineffective.
Gran has now become doubly incontinent, bless her soul, and it's getting harder by the week. Sometimes she can appear quite lucid, most of the time she talks absolute nonsense. She no longer truly recognises us as her family, she was most taken aback when she was told that mum was her daughter the other day. The expression on her face was priceless. Such a shame. She also now wears sufficient make up to give Coco the clown a run for his money, and she always took such pride in herself. She's still trying to do it of course, but her perception of sufficient and way over the top is gone.
Her appointment with her consultant was cancelled the other day, hopefully it won't be long before its rearranged. We now have another wandering session to add to her collection, and we'll have to pray things start to move. She's 25 miles away from us, and Mum was totally and utterly worn out doing the 50 mile round trip every day when she was first diagnosed. We would like her near to us, but SS seem to be resisting all the way along the line.
Just my perception on things, don't know if it helps at all.
Gill
xx