My grandad has dementia and sadly he is quite far gone now. He is in a nursing home bacause my nana cant cope with him by herself and although we all try and be there as much as we can, we all work full time. And we cant be there 24/7 to help.
He cant remember who any of us are anymore and has no idea what is going on half of the time. My dad visits him in the NH every day, so they take pretty good care of him but I think thats because they know he is always there to check on things, unfortunatley not everyone can do this.
I know when we came back off holiday we were horrified to find they had been putting adult diapers on him! He is NOT incontinent, he forgets where the toilets are but he tells you when he needs to go, I think some of the nurses just couldnt be bothered to take him.. needless to say we put an end to that.
But I still think that many nurses dont know how to deal with a dementia patient.
Its a very sad thing to watch a loved one go through this, and we know it will only get worse. But we fill his room with old photographs so he has familiar faces staring back at him and we try to keep things simple for him.
My grandad sings, have you heard of this with dementia patients? He cant talk anymore everything he says he sings, most dosnt make sense.. he's the only person I have heard this from. Wishing you luck.
__________________  Rachael & Poppy |