Care for elderly mam

sgc21

Hi looking for advise, my brother and I care for my 77  yr old mam lives alone, my mam is frail can't walk far, unable to cook and is showing Early signs of dementia. My brother and I send her meals down and we do housework and give support wherever needed. My mam can't communicate with technology eg computer or smartphone distantly. My brother and I still need to enter her house to help and support her. Just looking for advice and best practice to be able to provide support but also keeping her safe in light of the virus outbreak. We do stringently wash hands before we go and when we leave but just wondering if we should be doing anything else? Any advice would be appreciated.
Many thanks 

Jeremy535897

I can only suggest that you and your brother rigorously observe social distancing (2 meter rule) as much as possible, from your mother and everyone else. Minimise your chances of getting the virus, and minimise your chances of passing it on to your mother. Does she have neighbours that can keep an eye out for her, without necessarily coming into contact with her? There must be healthcare staff who know her condition that you can talk to and seek help and advice from?

chaoszone

My advice would be to batch supply food to cut down on visits. Easy microwave ones are ideal. Keep in regular contact by telephone.

I'm a 24/7 Primary Carer for my Mum with Alzheimer's. She's currently "fit for discharge" from hospital and physically fit but a care plan is being put in place. However, as a Primary Carer I usually stay with her all day, every day and sometimes into the night under "John's Campaign" rules. A few days ago I was told that I would only be able to visit for 1 hour per day. Normal visitors were either not allowed or for short period singly by special permission. It's in virtual lock down. Apparently the situation is being assessed on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. That's not scaremongering, it's a fact.However, today I received a phone call from staff on the ward saying that it had been escalated to management level and because I was effectively doing the job of a nurse for free and live alone they wanted me to come in to help plug the gap. There was a note of panic in her voice. I'm only a short walk from the hospital and wouldn't dream of coming into contact with others in most cases. It was skeleton staffed to minimise risk. The usual NHS P's were conspicuous by their absence.  The ward she's on has been moved lock, stock and barrel well away from the acute ward. Anything that could be moved has been moved. Today it was that quiet you could hear a pin drop. There's was no hustle and bustle that you usually associate. There's special isolation 'pods' been set up and in the more risky areas we have to wear face masks. There's special suits similar to space suit available at a moments notice and 5000 respirators been ordered for this hospital alone and it's only a small hospital. In spite of  the usual media hype make no mistake it seems that this time we really are in uncharted territory and should be taken VERY seriously. At first I thought it was hyped by the media like the SARS virus but this seems to be raising the bar to a whole new level. Friends on the 'Dementia Angels' facebook group have been saying that they couldn't visit the LO's because care homes were in lock down. If your LO has dementia it may be worth joining the group to keep in the loop of what's happening on a national level at the coal face. For now and the future it's worth installing Smart Cams and baby monitors that transmit live video to the internet cloud. That way you can keep an eye on what she's doing and if she needs extra help. You can get some that transmit two way voice communication as well. They are useful when LO's get to the point of lacking capacity and you want peace of mind.

chaoszone

As an aside if your Mam's showing signs of dementia make sure you have LPA in place for 'health and welfare' and 'Property and Finance' (jointly and severaly). You will need it in the future if you have to battle for her in her best interest when she gets less able to make decisions for herself. It gives you power to veto things others want if you believe it's not in her best interest and do day to day errands without breaking the law.

chaoszone

If you want to keep an eye on them you can also rig up a phone in your Mam's house and download a baby monitor app on to your phone to use it like a video cam over WiFi or mobile networks. It's a way of not needing landline broadband. Some do two way communications and are relatively easy to set up at your Mam's house and having it plugged into the mains as a 'TV' screen which can be easy to use by a technoklutz if it's always on. We've treated the screen as an always on two way communication and used an ordinary telephone for voice.

sgc21

chaoszone said:

If you want to keep an eye on them you can also rig up a phone in your Mam's house and download a baby monitor app on to your phone to use it like a video cam over WiFi or mobile networks. It's a way of not needing landline broadband. Some do two way communications and are relatively easy to set up at your Mam's house and having it plugged into the mains as a 'TV' screen which can be easy to use by a technoklutz if it's always on. We've treated the screen as an always on two way communication and used an ordinary telephone for voice.

Would love to know more about how this works, any chance you can explain more and point me in the right direction on how to set something like a video monitor up, many thanks

chaoszone

There's plenty of baby monitor apps out there for both Android and IOS. You can pair some of them together sothey can be used over wifi or mobile networks. You could plug one in as always on at your mam's house so they don't need to know how to use them. I used an old redundant one I still had when I replaced my phone. Check out Ahgoo Baby Monitors as an example.

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