Maureen and I have made a decision to banish the box.  The two televisions we have in our house will not be switched on until further notice.  We hope this will stop Maureen’s bad dreams and confusion about involvement in all sorts of frightening situations.  I will take similar action to avoid a risk of the sundowning that took place yesterday.

When I removed Maureen from  Ashgrove Care Home several important items were missing.  Some have been found but slippers that have sentimental value  have not turned up.  As is generally the case the replacement I purchased were seen as inadequate.  So I thought that if I took Maureen with me into Grimsby we couldn’t fail: a big mistake!

Mrs Dementia was back with a bang on our return home as sundowning reared its ugly head  My lovely wife didn’t know where she was and I was Public Enemy Number OneP . With no help at hand, I had to take shelter and tough it out until the cold night air and eventually a short sleep saw the Wicked Lady off.  The lesson from all of this is: stay local when the light is fading

Common sense, always an approach of our social worker, has prevailed over Best Interest matters.  He has won the debate in this arena and insisted on the least restrictive option: husband and wife staying together in their own home.  So we meet this morning to review our Care and Support Plans in the light of Maureen’s current presentation.

With some reluctance, I have used the facilities of PALS to lodge a complaint about the Officer chairing the Best Interest Discussion.  When professional staff appear to lack any understanding of how to be fair and reasonable; do not heed your warnings, then there is little alternative but to use formal procedures to address your concerns.

I thought this superb song which was written by Normms MacNamara,  diagnosed with dementia in his early 50’s, was a fitting way to end this post:

Please download this song to help it get to Number One for Christmas.

I’m posting early for Christmas this morning and I’ll be back on Monday.