Hi all,
Haven't been in much lately, had a busy time to say the least. My own immediate family, my two boys, have kept me busy, and been helping mum with my Gran as much as possible.
As I've told before, mum and I have had the devil's own job getting any decent help for Gran from SS. They've been of the opinion that she wasn't a risk to herself, and that she had plenty of family who could do their job for them. Well now we've had the crunch time.
Last night Mum went to bed feeling anxious due to the fact that the people who dish out DLA had decided that she was in need of a medical today to ascertain whether or not she could still get DLA, when they told her in 1992 that she qualified for life. So, with that on her mind, she was hoping she'd sleep.
She was woken at 4am this morning with a phone call from the police. They had found Gran wandering the streets at 3am, and had taken an hour to be able to get her name and guess at where she lived. She was dressed in thin polyester trousers, with her tights underneath, (no knickers or incontinence pad), vest, thin jumper that she knitted about 19 o-blonk that you can just about spit through, and a pair of slippers.
She obviously had no idea where she'd been or what she was doing, and seems to think she'd knocked on someone's door and asked for help.
The police stayed with Gran til mum got there, they didn't dare leave her on her own in case she went on the wander again. The doctor was called, and arrived mid morning, and stated that this was cause for concern, checked her over to make sure she was well and left. Mum rang social services first thing, but got the answer phone. To this time, no one rang her back today.
So, where do we go from here. Is this one instance of wandering enough, or are SS likely to say that one wandering does not constitute a risk to herself? We're presuming that she's not done it before, because we've not had the police on the phone, but who says she hasn't been able to retrace her steps and find home again when she's had moments of lucidity? And what caused her to realise that she shouldn't be out and knock on someone's door for help? Was the a rational bit of her kicking in?
None of us dare take our medication tonight for fear that we will need to drive 25 miles to her again, if she goes walkabout again.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we might prevent another one happening, without putting her in the situation where she can't get out of the house should there be a fire? God forbid. Of course if SS agree that she now needs care 24/7, its gonna take time to organise. So in the meantime we have to try and prevent it happening.
This comes on the back of a report in the news a few weeks ago stating that a 90 year old lady with AD had gone missing from her home, and she was found in a neighbours garden 9 days later, and had died from hypothermia.
All sorts of things are going through my head now.
Gill
Haven't been in much lately, had a busy time to say the least. My own immediate family, my two boys, have kept me busy, and been helping mum with my Gran as much as possible.
As I've told before, mum and I have had the devil's own job getting any decent help for Gran from SS. They've been of the opinion that she wasn't a risk to herself, and that she had plenty of family who could do their job for them. Well now we've had the crunch time.
Last night Mum went to bed feeling anxious due to the fact that the people who dish out DLA had decided that she was in need of a medical today to ascertain whether or not she could still get DLA, when they told her in 1992 that she qualified for life. So, with that on her mind, she was hoping she'd sleep.
She was woken at 4am this morning with a phone call from the police. They had found Gran wandering the streets at 3am, and had taken an hour to be able to get her name and guess at where she lived. She was dressed in thin polyester trousers, with her tights underneath, (no knickers or incontinence pad), vest, thin jumper that she knitted about 19 o-blonk that you can just about spit through, and a pair of slippers.
She obviously had no idea where she'd been or what she was doing, and seems to think she'd knocked on someone's door and asked for help.
The police stayed with Gran til mum got there, they didn't dare leave her on her own in case she went on the wander again. The doctor was called, and arrived mid morning, and stated that this was cause for concern, checked her over to make sure she was well and left. Mum rang social services first thing, but got the answer phone. To this time, no one rang her back today.
So, where do we go from here. Is this one instance of wandering enough, or are SS likely to say that one wandering does not constitute a risk to herself? We're presuming that she's not done it before, because we've not had the police on the phone, but who says she hasn't been able to retrace her steps and find home again when she's had moments of lucidity? And what caused her to realise that she shouldn't be out and knock on someone's door for help? Was the a rational bit of her kicking in?
None of us dare take our medication tonight for fear that we will need to drive 25 miles to her again, if she goes walkabout again.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we might prevent another one happening, without putting her in the situation where she can't get out of the house should there be a fire? God forbid. Of course if SS agree that she now needs care 24/7, its gonna take time to organise. So in the meantime we have to try and prevent it happening.
This comes on the back of a report in the news a few weeks ago stating that a 90 year old lady with AD had gone missing from her home, and she was found in a neighbours garden 9 days later, and had died from hypothermia.
All sorts of things are going through my head now.
Gill