I hope you have a better day today. My dad has wandered and got lost, only once, but I'm still worried he might do it again. I don't think he'd manage to get out of a window - but one never knows with this disease!
Wandering
- Thread starter MaNaAk
- Start date
I hope you have a better day today. My dad has wandered and got lost, only once, but I'm still worried he might do it again. I don't think he'd manage to get out of a window - but one never knows with this disease!
Dear Bunpoots,
That must have been even more frightening for you! Dad hasn't got lost yet but I now have more locks on the back and front doors and I have sealed off the downstairs windows and the windows in his room. This house is becoming a fortress and the only way he can get out now is to climb out of the window in the box room which is on the first floor. Therefore maybe I should get a lock on the door of this room but I still think of fire never mind the fact that he will probably wake me up by constantly trying the door to this room. This wandering stems from him not being able to get out the previous day because of the rainy weather!
Hope you have a good Easter and by the way dad had a good night and it was just me lying awake and mulling over the days events. One thing though through reading about everyone else's problems here I feel I am lucky that dad and I seem to have grown closer. This something that my brothers haven't experienced!
MaNaAk
PS: We carers have an inner strength!
That must have been even more frightening for you! Dad hasn't got lost yet but I now have more locks on the back and front doors and I have sealed off the downstairs windows and the windows in his room. This house is becoming a fortress and the only way he can get out now is to climb out of the window in the box room which is on the first floor. Therefore maybe I should get a lock on the door of this room but I still think of fire never mind the fact that he will probably wake me up by constantly trying the door to this room. This wandering stems from him not being able to get out the previous day because of the rainy weather!
Hope you have a good Easter and by the way dad had a good night and it was just me lying awake and mulling over the days events. One thing though through reading about everyone else's problems here I feel I am lucky that dad and I seem to have grown closer. This something that my brothers haven't experienced!
MaNaAk
PS: We carers have an inner strength!
Getting closer to my dad has been my one consolation in this situation and something my siblings won't experience either.
We were lucky that when dad did get lost in the early hours the police found him quite quickly and, because he was already registered with them as a vulnerable person they were able to get him safely home. He couldn't tell them his address but his name was on file. They were very good, and kind, so if you haven't already it's worth getting your dad's name and address registered.
Dads home is now a fortress too! He can get into the back garden but all front doors and garden gates are firmly locked!! And keys hidden..
It took me a few days to get over the shock of being phoned at 3am by the police after dad's nocturnal adventure but I'm calm again now.
Hope you have a good, worry free, Easter.
My mother and i have been living in sheltered accomodation for 6 months now and my mother was brought back by another resident having wandered out in her nightie in the rain.. So now I lock the front door. I have also had to deal with another resident who wanders as well.
These last 2 days mom has started wandering, luckily it has been early evening, tried to have a chat with her this evening about it and she denied everything, again I'm lucky, living in a village every one knows her, but alas she don't know them anymore......am so worn down keeping every thing going.....you do really need eyes every where!!
Can I ask....did you just register your dad with the police as being vulnerable.....this is all so new to me, am learning each day, am also getting so frustrated each day, each day throws a new curved ball.
I rang the police when my dad was targeted by scanners and they registered him as vulnerable when I told them he had dementia. I'm sure you could just phone them and register him. the fact that he was on their list was very useful when he went for a walk at 2am and got lost.
Our police have been brilliant so just give yours a call.
Hi Loisand
Some forces use the Herbert Protocol, which is there to help with vulnerable people especially for those with Dementia. If your local Police force don't you can still register someone with the Police as a vulnerable person, you can call into the station or do it over the telephone. I called into the station to register my dad with the local Police and I took in a recent photo. It really did help as my dad liked to go out a lot at any time or day or night. The Police brought him back many times even though my dad wasn't wandering though as he new exactly where he wanted to go and could get back home again as this was part of his routine, the problem was the concept of time, he didn't have any.
Thank you for that, will do what you suggested because sometimes I never see her go.
Thank you, will do what you have all suggested, have already managed to get all nuisance telephone calls blocked.
I was just going to suggst the Herbert Prtocol. Most Police forces are signed up to it now. I know it's
suggested above. Here's the Manchester one but just Google your nearest Police force.
http://www.gmp.police.uk/live/nhoodv3.nsf/triage-category?ReadForm&l2=86365&l3=40081
suggested above. Here's the Manchester one but just Google your nearest Police force.
http://www.gmp.police.uk/live/nhoodv3.nsf/triage-category?ReadForm&l2=86365&l3=40081
I'm surprised I missed this thread, I can so empathise with you all about this subject. One of my siblings and I was just saying that with all behavioural traits and symptoms that we've seen with our dad, the wandering or risk of it is the one that has to be the worst, or at least one of the worst.
I so agree with you Bunpoots with that sentence in your post - I had the very same experience. I can still recall watching my dad sit in his front room and go from crying like a frightened child to the tiredness kicking in and being oblivious by it all in a space of about 20 mins. Worse still, as the police had to look in his wallet for his ID, they informed us that he had a lot of money on him at the time which could have put him at more danger.
He still has the tendency to wander and unfortunately we have had to lock one particular door that he goes through even though there are other ways to get outside. And it seemed to work, however he started to occasionally shut in another door just behind him when approaching the locked door and has trapped himself indoors. We've now had to put something on that other door to ensure it can't be locked to avoid him being trapped.
My days... just when you think you found a way to do something easier/better, something else comes up right behind it to knock if off slightly.
After we realise that the wandering was becoming regular, I contacted the local police who were helpful but up to a point. They informed us that as the police had already been called out for my dad, something called a 'Merlin Report' is normally generated with his name, age, address, their vulnerabilities and any NOK info.
I asked if there I could add a photo of him and update the information to check that such a report had been generated and make sure all the information there is correct/up to date, but they wouldn't tell me anything more due to data protection laws, plus as the report was now closed, they couldn't add anything to it anyway.
With regards to the Herbert Protocol, this: https://www.met.police.uk/herbertprotocol says you only fill in the form when the person is missing and not before!
Last edited:
When I wrote the title of this thread @myss i didn't realise how may people would come along with the same problem. I also feel that this is one of the scariest things to have to deal with. My dad still tries to wander. I find the evidence with keys left all over his bungalow. It is the front door he wants to get out of, but that key has safely left the building.
I find it odd that he doesn't seem to want to use the other doors to "go somewhere" but just to go to the garden where they lead to.
I find it odd that he doesn't seem to want to use the other doors to "go somewhere" but just to go to the garden where they lead to.
I just realised that you can't see the sentence of your earlier post @Bunpoots that I was referring to in my last post! It was this one:
"It took me a few days to get over the shock of being phoned at 3am by the police after dad's nocturnal adventure but I'm calm again now."
That's one where I had the very same experience of! And as with your previous post, my dad has ways to get out to the garden and out to the front of the house, but when he wanders it's always through the front door. And for the first time yesterday, he tried to leave the daycare centre too although as he's never done this before and the exit is close by to the toilet, we're unsure if he had mistaken it to go there instead. I hope so!
"It took me a few days to get over the shock of being phoned at 3am by the police after dad's nocturnal adventure but I'm calm again now."
That's one where I had the very same experience of! And as with your previous post, my dad has ways to get out to the garden and out to the front of the house, but when he wanders it's always through the front door. And for the first time yesterday, he tried to leave the daycare centre too although as he's never done this before and the exit is close by to the toilet, we're unsure if he had mistaken it to go there instead. I hope so!
Recent Threads
-
Early onset Dementia and Pacemaker replacement. I don’t want to do it.
- Latest: bunnylovevol
-
-
-
-
-
-
-