Dear Friends
I wonder if anyone has any suggestions about how to help my me talk to my Mum about relatives who have long since died but who she thinks are still alive and may help look after her? She has Lewy Body Dementia and so has flashes of insight, but for most of the time is locked in the past . She lives in an EMI Nursing home which she sometimes thinks is her workplace but recently she thinks is a pub. When I visit she will ask if I have seen her sisters or Mum and dad (long since dead). I reply that I have not seen them for a long time she gets andry with me as thinks thinks I live near them, If I go along with the fact they are alive she gets angry becuase they do not visit or take her home to look after her. If I say nothing she realises they are dead and gets upset and if I explain they died a long time ago she also gets upset. It is as if she is hearing the news for the first time and it is dreadfully upsetting. Whatever I say causes her to cry and become distressed, the carers are wonderful and do their best to comfort her but nothing seems to work. Has anyone any ideas?
regards
Geraldine
I wonder if anyone has any suggestions about how to help my me talk to my Mum about relatives who have long since died but who she thinks are still alive and may help look after her? She has Lewy Body Dementia and so has flashes of insight, but for most of the time is locked in the past . She lives in an EMI Nursing home which she sometimes thinks is her workplace but recently she thinks is a pub. When I visit she will ask if I have seen her sisters or Mum and dad (long since dead). I reply that I have not seen them for a long time she gets andry with me as thinks thinks I live near them, If I go along with the fact they are alive she gets angry becuase they do not visit or take her home to look after her. If I say nothing she realises they are dead and gets upset and if I explain they died a long time ago she also gets upset. It is as if she is hearing the news for the first time and it is dreadfully upsetting. Whatever I say causes her to cry and become distressed, the carers are wonderful and do their best to comfort her but nothing seems to work. Has anyone any ideas?
regards
Geraldine