Wandering

[Sallye]

Hello, last night my mum who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2017 took her first wander at approximately 10pm in her slippers without a coat or her walking aids
Fortunately, she knocked on someones door about half a mile from her own home, who kindly phoned me as she had taken her handbag with her which still had contact details in it, (surprisingly as she is always emptying them out of her bag, purse, coat pocket) and they phoned me to collect her
She told us she was on her way to bed but went through the wrong door, she lives in a retirement block and had made her way from the first floor to leave the building. I am now in panic that this will keep happening. Although my brother and I visit her twice daily at least, do all the normal household things for her, take her out for a daily walk we unfortunately due to space in all of our homes cant spend 24 hours a day with her.
Really not sure what to do next, do we contact her doctor for an up to date diagnosis, do we approach care homes although well aware of the Covid problems and will they take her anyway, are we panicking too early, just want her to be safe,


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[karaokePete]

Hello and welcome @Sally Everett.

Care Homes are a last resort so don't panic.

GP is a good place to start and give details to the local police so that they can identify her if found wandering. You will get lots of support here.

I'll put up a couple of useful links in a minute.

 

[karaokePete]

As promised a couple of useful links. Beyond that, I hope you have time to take a good look around the site as it is a goldmine for information. When I first joined I read old threads for information but then found the AS Publications list and the page where a post code search can be done to check for support services in ones own area. If you are interested in these, clicking the following links will take you there

https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/publications-factsheets-full-list

https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/find-support-near-you

You will see that there are Factsheets that will help with things like getting care needs assessments, deciding the level of care required and sorting out useful things like Wills, Power of Attorney etc., if any of that hasn't already been done. There is also a Dementia Guide in the list. Symptoms such as wandering are also covered.

Now that you have found us I hope you will keep posting as the membership has vast collective knowledge and experience.

Best of luck to you and yours.

 

[Bod]

A Care Home is the last resort. There are various different methods of reminding, that it is not a good idea to go outside.
Notes on doors, recorded voice when door is opened, CCTV , etc.
It has been found that some of these work for a period, may be days - months, but all are ignored eventually.
My advice, after going through this with father, is to start looking at Care Homes now. It will take quite sometime to arrange, whatever route you take.
First arrange an Local Authority Care Assessment for her, to determine her "needs" and how they will be paid for.
Include a "Carers assessment" for yourselves, to make it clear just what you can and more importantly cannot do for her, or you will be expected to do it all!
Keep records of all incidents, including any Police/Ambulance incident numbers, it all shows what is going on.

Bod.

 

[Galanthus]

Hi Sally

I‘m fairly new to the journey, and I’m sure others will have more to offer, but a couple of things which have been mentioned to me are the Herbert Protocol, which is a form which you can print out and attach a photo, and which you can hand to the police if your mum goes missing. Also, there are a couple of products, a GPS tracker so you can trace her whereabouts, and devices which I understand you can attach to the door which tell her to go back inside etc, but I‘ve no actual experience of them. I hope this helps.

 

[Palerider]

Hmm tricky situation @Sally Everett. Mums wandering started off as fairly innocent pottering round the estate and the neighbours kept an eye and had to retrieve her a few times when I was at work. But then it became more serious as she wandered five miles and had got lost down some dangerous A roads. Luckily a passer by saw her looking confused and got her in the car and she was able to give directions just about - I got the phone call while at work. From their her wandering increased as she rapidly declined and I had to take leave from work until an emergency CH placement was found.

Trackers didn't work in the end as she would remove them or simply not take the items they were attached to with her. A care home isn't the last resort, but when that level of wandering starts its difficult to know if will pass or if it will be a new permanent feature of the dementia as well as needing to keep 24/7 watch. It maybe that you have to go down the CH route in the end. I don't know your circumstances but if you get SS to carry out an assessment they will do what they can to keep your mum at home or advise its no longer a possibility.

 

[Pete1]

Hi @Sally Everett, welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about Mum, it must have made you extremely anxious to hear that I'm sure. I went through the same with Mum, however Mum was trying to 'get home' (to her childhood home), which is extremely common but seemingly not the case with your Mum. I agreed with all the good advice you have been given e.g. trackers, CCTV, door sensors, informing the Police under the Herbert Protocol. One thing you said was that Mum got confused - have you checked to see if she has any underlying infection (e.g. UTI) - this can often cause increased confusion. It may not be the case and Mum may have just moved onto the next phase, but it is certainly worth checking if you haven't already.

If she doesn't have an evening carer perhaps you could look into that? They could ensure she is settled in bed for the evening.

I know how difficult this is for you, take care of yourself too.

All the best.