Living with dementia
Mrs Page lived with her husband in an extra care scheme when she was diagnosed with vascular dementia. She started to have hallucinations and became aggressive towards care staff and family. She was placed in 24 hour respite care for specialist assessment and medication management. Mrs Page’s husband passed away while she was in care and the plan to discharge her was changed.
She did not thrive in care. When Mrs Page was actively hallucinating she was unable to manage her own behaviour and often had to be guided away for time out by staff. Her family was concerned that with too few meaningful activities to stimulate her she would deteriorate, slow down and rely heavily on staff. Mrs Page has a supportive family who wanted to try to get her home, and the Care Call team suggested using Just Checking as part of the care plan.
Getting Mrs Page home after five months in respite care involved in-depth team planning, between the community matron, psychiatrist, day care staff, home care staff, social worker, Care Call and the family. Mrs Page had not lived alone before. The assumption was that she might not manage at home, that she might become too distressed and leave the flat to look for others. While the family planned to be at the flat for much of the day, they were nervous about what would happen at night. A door exit alert was installed as well as Just Checking.
Within days of being home Mrs Page improved. She was able to fill her time in her own flat and activity charts showed that night time was less of a problem than anticipated and Eileen has not tried to go out.
During a week when Mrs Page did not sleep well, extra care staff heard her moving around in the early hours but were able to use Just Checking to satisfy themselves that she was fine. The family could also see when she had a disturbed night and were able to explain the increased confusion or delusions which usually followed.
Day centre staff reported Mrs Page being able to manage her own behaviour and noted that if she was hallucinating she would take herself away from group.
The social worker felt that Just Checking was invaluable for this complex case. The balance of being in her own flat and going to the day centre has made her far more settled than she ever was in 24 hour care.
Just Checking and Gateshead Care Call are members of the Telecare Services Association.
The Just Checking system allows people with dementia or memory loss to live independently. It monitors a person in their home and provides a chart of activity which carers can access via the internet.