New to here.

[archersaddict]

Hi, this is my first post on here. I have read some posts and feel confident that I am in the right place for advice.
My mum has dementia which presents itself as a problem with short term memory.
Mum hasa lifeline but every evening turns it off and pulls out the plug as she believes in safety. How do I stop this happening? When I say she should always leave it in she says we should have told her.
Mum is 81, lives in her own home with 2 visits from carers.
Thank you.

 

[cragmaid]

Hello and welcome, sorry but I saw your name and my impish mind went " rumpty dumpty dumpty dum...rumpty dumpty die do" etc I wish they hadn't killed off poor Nigel
Now to be more helpful,.... can the care line be plugged in to a different socket, perhaps behind the sofa where Mum can't reach it so easily? Or...what about taping the switch "on" with a bit of duct tape and stick a label on the wall saying Do Not Turn This Off Mum....or ask the providers if there is a version that can be permanently wired in instead of plugged in.....or perhaps there is a battery run model????
Sorry can't help more for now. Good Luck. Maureen.x.

 

[FifiMo]

Welcome to Talking Point,

You can buy a lockable socket cover so that the plug can't be removed. Something like this would work...http://www.insight-direct.co.uk/productinfo.php?product=5414.

Hope this helps,

Fiona

 

[tre]

I thought you meant the drink not the soap.
Tre

 

[Jakkles]

Hi,
My MiL used to unplug the fridge so food would go off, even when I put a HUGE sign above the plug saying do not turn off! She also unplugged the careline, and we went once and the machine was gone, we never found it so apologised to the careline people and was not asked to pay for it which was good of them.
I did try to put the machine under a table so it was not on show but it was there one day and gone the next. I'm afraid their generation is so used to unplugging things it seems impossible to stop. No matter what we carers try dementia always scuppers us!
Jakkles

 

[archersaddict]

new to here

Unfortunately double socket cover won't work because she has a fire plug in the other socket. Will try to cover switch though.
Thank you

 

[garnuft]

Minuetio...
Mnuetio....

where for art thou?

I can't spell the name but they know ALL there is to know about this sort of aggro.

I know how it feels though, my mother still tries to move furniture and thinks me....
'the bairn'
is unsafe to re-wire a plug.

She doesn't want outsiders in her house
'Switch that OFF! I'm not having them come here!'

(who does? that's not Dementia. It's reet!)

Doesn't help us though, who LOVE.

I share your troubles.

 

[luda]

This is my first post on here, but we have had the same problem with my MIL we have put signs everywhere, we know she doesn't like them but she does sometimes take notice, she lives in a house on her own, and has recently come out of hospital, she broke her hip, we put a single bed in her front room to save her coming downstairs in the night to go to the loo, but she kept going upstairs to bed, then we would get a call from lifeline saying she doesn't know where she is and needs the toilet, so we had to go to her house and bring her downstairs, then she would go in the bed downstairs, we got a 2ftx4ft piece of hardboard and put it across the stairs and wrote in big letters REPLACE BOARD and underneath SLEEP DOWNSTAIRS.It seems to be working it is light enough for her to move and she does put it back on the bottom stair,she also turns the heating off but although we have put signs up to stop this they haven't worked as well as the big board. We did offer her to stay with us but she wont and wants to stay in her own home.

 

[FifiMo]

That is easy to resolve so far as the fire socket is concerned. Plug in a short extension lead and lock the double socket. She can then pull the fire plug out but can't get to the lifeline or the extension lead socket.

Job done!

Fiona

 

[garnuft]

Hiya Luda,
Pleased to meet you.

My Mam was a very active politician in regional politics.
She was on the National Executive that drove the decisions that made the Manifesto of that Party's Agenda for General Elections.

She keeps switching her central heating off EVERY night, even though we have a fluorescent sticker all over it.

It isn't her.

Her brain is being destroyed by Alzheimer's and Vascular Dementia.


I am sad you had to find this place but hope you will feel a whole new, injecting, informative, pain-sharing, opinion-giving, advice-seeking voice that I did.

Your voice is welcome and needed,

Hello.

Gwen X

 

[luda]

Hi gwen

thank you for the welcome, me and my husband are finding it hard going at the moment MIL has been told she has MCI but has to have another assessment tomorrow because she seems to have deteriorated since she broke her hip, she has been losing her memory for at least 18 months but my husband would not except that there was a problem, in the end I made the appointment for her to see her dr and went with her everything went from there, I am used to looking after someone with physical illness as I looked after my mum for 24 years she had MS sadly she died last year, thought life would be a little easier but since mum went my MIL seems to have gone downhill, but I am finding mental illness really hard to deal with so am looking for any advice I can get to help us understand and cope with what is to come, also my MIL does not except that she has a problem so how do you make someone with a short term memory loss remember that she cannot remember.

lynn.x

 

[archersaddict]

hi Luda

My mum knows she has memory problems, sadly she feels ashamed and gets upset so we make light of it as much as possible. Rightly or wrongly this works for us.