Carers Group: 10/6/24

Janet’s piece

Janet introduced a discussion on the Channel 4 programme “The Piano”. Amateur pianists are filmed playing at railway stations around the country and the pick of the bunch appear in concert at a major venue. One of the final group was a gentleman who has dementia and had written a piece for his wife. You can watch all episodes here.

Member updates

Eating slowly

A member’s wife is eating her meals very slowly. Her husband spoke to their consultant. She asked if the “slow eating” takes over an hour, it doesn’t, so the consultant did not consider this particularly slow. The husband said meals were now almost drifting into the next one. Generally he feels his wife is relatively stable, but he has looked back on his notes and they show a clear decline. Janet recommended keeping notes to ensure you have a clear record of what has happened, medications etc. The husband told the group he was off for a holiday, but that trips away were becoming more difficult given his wife’s situation.

Sleeping much of the time

A mum in a care home is regularly sleeping for 20/30 minutes, then she gets up and looks for something to eat. The care home have placed a motions sensor mat by her bed to indicate when she gets up at night. This behaviour is not causing problems, but mum has put on weight. The home is having issues recruiting permanent staff and regularly uses agency people. The seem to be carefully managing the staff – for example: only regular staff deal with personal care. There are activities in the home, such as singers and films. Mum likes the music, but after a while she will tend to return to her room and have a nap.

Mum usually does not recognise her daughter and has asked her if she is the person who has come to repair the TV. The daughter finds some of these meetings amusing, she tries to be positive.

The daughter has finally (after five months) sorted out the council’s funding. She took Tatiana’s advice to put everything in writing (mostly in emails). The council has a variety of interested teams, none of which seem to have enough staff.

Australia update

The carer, with her brother living in Australia, said she was very grateful for the support her brother gets from the care home and a friend there. His communication had improved recently, the sister assumes there has been a change in his medication. Tatiana reminded the sister that the care home should hold regular reviews with her – she should ask about the home’s procedures. The home arranges activities, but he is now mainly interested in the trips out on Fridays. The sister does not know his schedule beyond this. Meeting virtually on Sundays, rather than Fridays, ensures he is not too tired to talk. She is reassured that he seems to have made friends in the home.