Maureen came back in a big way yesterday and confined Mrs Dementia to the dustbin until it was time to go to bed.  I wasn’t at all surprised that I was sent to the Boys Dorm at 1o.30 pm as she would have been exhausted after a very busy day.  Once we were upstairs she once again asked where the girls were so I took my cue and hot- footed it to the spare room.  This morning I heard Maureen crying out as she asked Denise, her daughter who has passed, if it was time to get up.  A quick cuddle and a cuppa did the trick and she was safely in the land of nod.

Today will be the first day for almost a week that Chloe has been on duty.  I have deliberately kept carers at bay so that we could get our home back for a while.  It’s not surprising that Maureen thinks it’s a Care Home with ‘ladies’ as she calls them here every weekday.

Some of my friends on Talking Point  have often questioned my judgement: quite rightly on occasions.  Certain members of my family have raised their eyebrows at my approach: one even suggesting ‘I haven’t got a clue’.  So take breath before you read this: we are now curtailing the amount of carer sits by terminating the presence of carers on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s.  Yes: we are reducing Local Authority funded carer sits by 6 hours a week.

Our Dementia Specialist Social Worker: Flexible Sue as I now  call her fully understands our strategy and she is never one whose sole concern is to manage budgets.  We have both finally understood Maureen’s plea to ‘want to get her home and  life back’.   It is possible that carer sits may be reduced even further as Maureen’s recovery from stroke continues.

Flexible Sue has kindly offered to support me as I try to ensure that Person Centred Care is applied across the board.  The Home Treatment Team provide daily mentorship as I try to get my own house in order.  They think my plan to continue an assessment of Maureen’s capabilities is sound and like my ideas about including carers in this process.  Once we have spent a week or so taking a look at Maureen in action I hope we can arrive at a consensus on the way forward.

The photo below puts some ‘meat in the sandwich’ of my thinking.  Actually it was cheese but no matter:

Maureen offered to make me a cheese sandwich yesterday afternoon.  I fell asleep as she had been in the kitchen rather a long time.  When I caught up with her it was clear she had struggled.  There were three sandwiches scattered around the kitchen I found the one above in the fridge. She had done her best: no harm had been done and nothing wasted – in fact plenty for another day.  Nevertheless, there had been purpose in her life for the last half an hour or so.  Our focus needs to be in helping Maureen to find more purpose than being tied to the kitchen sink.  I have every confidence that with the support I have at my disposal we are up for it!