Hi everyone.
What can I do if my father refuses to see a Dr in order to get diagnosed? I know there is a problem and I have seen his mental health getting worse over the last couple of years. He lives alone and he has severe memory problems, gets easily confused and is unable to communicate effectively as he is unable to find the words.
The problem is that my dad who is nearly 80, sees himself as being fit and active as he can walk for miles and has a daily morning routine of catching 2 trains to go and have his lunch out and then he catches 2 trains back home and then tends to go for a long walk in the afternoon.
At the moment, this is only a problem if he does this routine at night time (thinking it is morning again after an afternoon nap!) and then when he goes out he finds it suddenly goes dark (he does not know or understand why this happens) and he finds that everything is shut and he then can't get home as there are no more trains or buses past midnight. This has resulted in him being brought home by the Police on a number of occasions in the early hours of the morning, ie 3am. To add to the problems, he has just recently been stopped for shoplifting (no police involved luckily) and has now been banned from the only store he used to buy his groceries from and have his lunch at every day. Problem is he doesn't think he is doing anything wrong, in his words, "the worlds all gone crazy".
Regarding the Dr's, I think my dad has an issue with going to the Dr's as he had/has arthritis for many years which meant regular trips to the Dr's and hospital for bloods tests etc. About 5 years ago after the Dr's upsetting him he refused any more treatment and he actually feels better not taking the arthritis medication so as far he is concerned the Dr's are a waste of time. When I try to get him to see the Dr about his memory and confusion problems he gets quite aggressive and defensive and threatens to not speak to me if I get them involved.
Sorry for the long message, but I am getting really worried and I don't know what to do. I also would like advice if there are any advantages to getting him diagnosed or should I try to carry on and manage him the best I can at the moment in the hope nothing really bad happens to him?
Thanks in advance for your support and advice.
Elle3
What can I do if my father refuses to see a Dr in order to get diagnosed? I know there is a problem and I have seen his mental health getting worse over the last couple of years. He lives alone and he has severe memory problems, gets easily confused and is unable to communicate effectively as he is unable to find the words.
The problem is that my dad who is nearly 80, sees himself as being fit and active as he can walk for miles and has a daily morning routine of catching 2 trains to go and have his lunch out and then he catches 2 trains back home and then tends to go for a long walk in the afternoon.
At the moment, this is only a problem if he does this routine at night time (thinking it is morning again after an afternoon nap!) and then when he goes out he finds it suddenly goes dark (he does not know or understand why this happens) and he finds that everything is shut and he then can't get home as there are no more trains or buses past midnight. This has resulted in him being brought home by the Police on a number of occasions in the early hours of the morning, ie 3am. To add to the problems, he has just recently been stopped for shoplifting (no police involved luckily) and has now been banned from the only store he used to buy his groceries from and have his lunch at every day. Problem is he doesn't think he is doing anything wrong, in his words, "the worlds all gone crazy".
Regarding the Dr's, I think my dad has an issue with going to the Dr's as he had/has arthritis for many years which meant regular trips to the Dr's and hospital for bloods tests etc. About 5 years ago after the Dr's upsetting him he refused any more treatment and he actually feels better not taking the arthritis medication so as far he is concerned the Dr's are a waste of time. When I try to get him to see the Dr about his memory and confusion problems he gets quite aggressive and defensive and threatens to not speak to me if I get them involved.
Sorry for the long message, but I am getting really worried and I don't know what to do. I also would like advice if there are any advantages to getting him diagnosed or should I try to carry on and manage him the best I can at the moment in the hope nothing really bad happens to him?
Thanks in advance for your support and advice.
Elle3