Hi Sue,
my MIL had frequent hallucinations and delusions (Lewy Body).
We started to have a number of problems including night wandering due to day night mix ups, unlocking her front door repeatedly and falls. She had a falls ‘watch’ but she would remove it and hide it as she thought it was a gold one she’d had from childhood. If she fell when wearing it and heard the response person (who she believed to be her neighbour opposite watching her) she would tell them very convincingly she was fine. We found her a few times, or carers did on the days they came in, on the floor, only partially clothed and fast asleep. We had no way of telling how long she had been there.
So we invested in a camera. Our dementia team physio was helpful in reassuring us this was the right action to take. As it triggered on movement to record and track it proved invaluable. We were able to site it high on a bookshelf where it showed her top half when walking (to preserve dignity if not properly clothed), the top of her head when she shuffled around on the floor if she fell, had a turning view that allowed sight of the front door and the kitchen door. It also tracked her crossing the hall way to the bathroom. And as a mirror on the opposite wall reflected her sitting in her favourite sofa place we could check all was okay easily. I will also point out we lived a 20 min walk, 5 min drive away so alerts were useful.
We were helped by having a simply laid out bungalow with glass in the doors. The camera sent movement and ‘baby crying’ alerts to my phone then I could check live if an ‘emergency dash’ was needed. As her TV triggered movement at times and having it up full volume set off the the baby crying function this was useful.
Over the months it showed us her answering the falls call people and persuading them not to call us - the camera triggered a night alert to my phone so I accessed the camera live and heard her conversation although she was on the floor and out sight. She was okay but unable to get up. That led to me asking the falls service not to ask ‘are you okay Mrs …’ but ‘are you on the floor Mrs …’. Once that was sorted we silenced the camera alerts overnight, but would often wake to hours of alerts and footage.
Skimming through these we saw just how frequent her night time wanderings were and how distressed she was by finding multiple living rooms in her home and knocking on her bedroom door repeatedly.
We learned that she was afraid of the reflections in the french windows from the TV overnight, so we put it on a timer so the TV switched off for at least 10 hours.
We realised that she shouted a lot at times when alone. Thankfully her adjoining neighbour was deaf too.
Much more was evident. Some things we could mitigate, others left us feeling we couldn’t do enough to help her.
When she tried to call us by telephone but couldn’t manage to hear us or understand we did use the microphone function. As she thought she was talking on the telephone it worked once or twice. When we tried to use it to try to head off a dangerous situation (determined to carry a chair down steps to the conservatory) while husband hurried over she wouldn’t listen. Her increasing delusions made it scary I think. We tried making the phone ring then speaking. Again mixed success.
The camera we had was a reasonable price and I would say worth a try if it can help you to not have to ‘be there’ all the time. My MIL prized her independence until very late on and it helped us give her some measure of that. What it showed was at times heartbreaking though.
Hope that’s helpful.