Dementia talk and training

I’m prepping and planning the talk and training session someone saw fit to invite me to give and having always used a lot of role play during training I give to staff, it’s something I also want to incorporate here because it helps people really understand so much more when you provide examples of real life, everyday scenarios and problems commonly encountered.

I will tone things down for this event however it’s different when I’m training staff I know, have worked with or currently work with and alongside because they know me, my sense of humour and understand I’m not taking the piss and being disrespectful (absolutely never the case I promise)

However I decided to revisit some clips of Teepa Snow for ideas about scenarios and role play that needs to be touched on and came across one of my favourites.

The example of someone shadowing is spot on and I love “Shadowing…. ooooh the shadowing”

The reason I include dementia and issues carers have is because it increases the risk of becoming a situation that can see abuse and safeguarding involvement which is almost never due to malice, deliberate neglect or mistreatment. I despise hearing people judge carers when there is some issue with a loved one that’s been flagged up because there is no harder job on Earth than being a full time sole carer of a loved one.

I couldn’t do it. I’ve worked in this area for years and I’m telling you there’s no way I could cope with being the sole carer 24hrs a day without any support or respite. Often towards the end of a shift I’d find myself getting weary and starting to feel irritated with someone. You’re human it’s the most natural thing to start losing patience after so long but that’s the point staff go – “Can you go and see to Mrs Smith for me I’m getting ratty now”

It’s what I explain to people who are the subject of a safeguarding alert and I stress to them when we visit and follow it up they’re not in trouble, they’re not being accused or judged or anything of the sort. We’re there to help them and try getting the right support and giving them the break they need and the extra people coming in to share the load and let them take time out.

Whenever people start really having a go and judging a carer who may have lost their rag and been a little heavy handed, I’m quick to chip in and remind them how hard their job is.

Nobody who has ever worked in the community and experienced even for short periods what it’s like will ever take that attitude towards a stressed carer.

Not every care giver struggles to that extent and becomes so stressed things take a turn but those that do are absolutely at the end of their rope and need help.

“I don’t know how someone could do that to Mum / Dad / whatever I’d NEVER do that!

“Have you done it?”

“Well no but – “

“Shut up then you have no idea how hard it is”

DESIGNING A DEMENTIA CARE HOME

OK I’m shouting out for thoughts on the design and décor of a new purpose built dementia care due to open end of June / early July.

Has just registered and been given the nod so all being well with enough staff recruited, checked and in place for opening day, I will be working with them to make sure they get off on the right foot, have staff trained and supervised / supported and generally start as they mean to go.

The home’s info and brochure describes the following –

It’s a specialist dementia care home for 40 people with excellent layout and facilities including huge bathrooms, wet rooms, three communal lounges, four quiet rooms, activity room and own café serving coffee, tea and home-made cakes.

Enclosed landscaped gardens, terrace and gazebo with seating and furniture.

The bedrooms are located across three floors, with lift and stair access to each floor.

Deluxe rooms are beautifully decorated and furnished with everything you would expect including stylish furniture, quality flooring, flat screen TV, and co-coordinating curtains, walls and bedding.

The premium rooms come with brand new King Sized beds, luxurious bed linen, curtains and accessories, bespoke furniture and feature wallpaper”

The choice of activities includes photography, baking, trips to the seaside, park walks, crafts, massage, cinema, theatre and gardening.

Wi-Fi. Hairdressing salon. Newspaper delivery service. Full laundry service washing and ironing done for you. On site cafe and drinks. Telephone access. 24Hr nurse call system”

Now at the risk of sounding like I’m putting a bummer on the place or trying to take the edge off things I’m of the opinion a lot of the things advertised and marketed as the main “sell” for want of a better word aren’t much of a sell.

All care homes have laundry, 24hr staff and nurse call and all should have tastefully decorated, furnished rooms with suitable facilities, good nutritious food and regular activities offered.

The king sized beds are likely to need replacing with a more suitable lower level bed and maybe different aids and equipment, luxurious bed linen is likely to need laundering at high temperatures regularly which either leaves it looking a mess and not so luxurious, needing to be replaced very often (costing a fortune) or switching to a different linen altogether.

Bespoke furniture and ornaments are unsafe to have in many rooms as they tend to be heavy or have sharp edges that can cause accident and injury.  Feature wallpapers can cause problems for people with dementia too if they’re busy, have large bright and HOLY SHIT designs.

I redecorated an entire care home top to bottom for just under £2000.  Gutted with steam cleaners, sugar soap, repainted the woodwork at night, gave walls the same cream / neutral coloured emulsion right the way through finished off with some small tasteful wall murals / decals, plants / fresh flowers and lighting to pretty it up and give it a new burst of life.

The place was rank and had not seen a paint brush since it first opened thirty years earlier it was grim as shit but done up on a budget and really looked well 😀

Each resident had their own choice of colour scheme with bedding, curtains and matching cushions up to a max of £200 per room but most either weren’t all that fussed (“I like blue just make it a nice baby blue colour I don’t mind”) or ended up spending way below budget anyway.

My thoughts and general advice / ideas at this stage are to scrap marketing as a high-end luxury hotel spa boutique type thing and instead use the additional space and facilities to make them useful, safer, homely and appealing to family as well as residents.

Premium rooms on ground floor could have –

• Personalised colour scheme and choice of bed linen, curtain and matching furnishings within an agreed budget to redecorate every 2yrs. This gives residents and their families the option to decide what colour walls, what type of linen and do it up in a more homely way rather than feel they are moving into a standard room just like everyone else’s.
• Space for own furniture from home (subject to size and assessment)
• Space for a small pet (bird or similar) and a quiet room / lounge / memory corner or library for residents to enjoy sole private use.  If they can’t bring in a family dog or cat it would still allow their families to bring them in and visit regularly within the privacy of their own room.
• Second guest bed for family to stay overnight with lockable safe, tea / coffee making facilities, bed linen, towels and complimentary toiletries.
• Own telephone and for those that are tech savvy a workspace for laptops so they Skype their great great nephew bumming it round New Zealand.

With the greatest of respect, as people with dementia deteriorate the support, comfort and a place to feel welcome and spend the remainder of whatever short time is left becomes more important for their families and I’ve always been big on making sure they know they can rock up, waltz in and make themselves at home.

Goes without saying the care given to the people with dementia is never short nor scrimped by any stretch either but the need for those little touches and home comforts often becomes greater for their families as they see their loved ones through to the end.

If these rooms come with a premium price tag they have to appeal to families who will no doubt be paying that top up and be grateful to have their own place to sit privately with loved ones, get their head down and stay overnight as and when needed, feel at home and have somewhere to shower and get themselves a brew.

Makes a huge difference if they can take the time and enjoy decorating bedrooms and furnishing with a personal touch so they aren’t left with guilt or feeling unwanted, unwelcome and not comfortable being at the home and seeing their loved ones on a daily basis.

So with that what else do people think would be useful to have in bedrooms that are classed as “luxury” but won’t alter the layout and be costly to arrange and then take out for the next person?

Any / all ideas welcome with open arms (from perspective of residents, relatives, staff – everyone) Don’t bother about it seeming too personal, selfish or trivial there’s no such thing and I want to take it all into account because it matters.  Making a place look good and dazzling people with expensive this, that and the other doesn’t impress nor do any good.

What I’m thinking is making it everyone’s home and having everyone feel at home but without the show and price tag.

Oooh and a Yodel Cliff Hanger stair lift.  That’s one Mark promised he’d try and work out a design for but it didn’t happen although I have high hopes it may still one day become a reality 😀

Letting go of all you love

Bit heavy for this time on a Friday but following another post on the subject of dementia I posted this link to help understand the process of letting someone go and why it’s OK to do.

It applies to people and even pets we love and know are nearing their end of life but we can’t bring ourselves to acknowledge.

It’s the hardest thing in the world to reach that point where you know it’s time to let someone go but it’s so important to do not just for us emotionally but for the ones we love.

I have lost friends, relatives and pets (grieved incredibly hard for my dogs strangely enough) but the one thing I find huge comfort from is knowing I let them go.

We all lose what we love at some point.  I already dread losing my best friends and even now the thought of it makes me teary but we have nothing and feel nothing if we don’t open ourselves up to feeling that level of love and loss.

What we as pet owners often do and understandably so is kid ourselves and hide behind the belief that when our pet is ready to go they’ll let us know.

“When it’s time they’ll let me know” or “I can’t play God / nature will take its course” is hard for me especially when I can see their pet is clearly ready and in need of their help and knowing that despite what we might like to think, animals seldom die peacefully in their sleep.  They often die whilst we sleep but they don’t always get the peaceful end we like to pretend.

What we can do and must do is make their ending peaceful and do right by the friends that never ever falter in loyalty to us throughout their life.

The last friend I lost left too soon and I spent several weeks trying to help her recover from an illness was the hardest thing I’ve had to deal with.  In the last few days of her life I knew she’d given up and even got angry with her for not eating, refusing to drink and not even accepting a small tiny spoonful of mashed potato I’d hidden medication inside hoping to get her better.   “FFS Cass I’m trying to make you better but you have to meet me halfway you have to eat – you’re not eating and you’ll die!!”

This dog was utterly barmy and never without a daft gormless expression on her face and she would throw down a piece of chicken without it touching the sides, leap over two lots of gates when she heard me at the front door ready to pick her up and spin full 360’s like a lunatic the second she saw me pick up my wellies to go for a walk.

Until then she was never without that typical Springer mental about her but she’d lost all her sparkle and the fire had gone out.

She was so thin I had to tie a jumper around her just to keep her warm whilst she went outside for a few minutes to have a wee which I also had to force her do towards the end.

She’d had enough and I knew she had but at such a young age I wasn’t ready to let her go until I knew it was no longer about me and what I wanted.

When she collapsed at home that last time, my heart dropped and I only asked that she hang on a few minutes whilst the vet got an injection ready.  We were being cheated out of each other and I was pissed about it so if I had to lose her, she was going out on my nod.

Those last few moments are an odd experience and rarely as bad as you think but I distinctly remember her looking at me as if to say “Stop worrying…stop getting upset I’m fine honestly I’m just really, really tired and I want to sleep” and I telepathically said “OK then.. OK you go to sleep and come wake me up when it’s time” and she was gone literally seconds later.

I swore and kicked off and sobbed absolutely broke my heart afterwards but the one consolation I have is knowing she went peacefully with me there and we didn’t part company in an even crueller way so now she’s back to this which is my completely gormless daft little friend 😀

It will happen again and I will break my heart all over again cos I’m an idiot and keep opening myself up for more heartbreak but if I didn’t I’d deny myself the best friends on Earth and be a bit lost.

The last conversation I had with my Dad came as a bizarre moment of total clarity after days and weeks of delirium and drifting in and out of conciousness.  His wife stepped outside to grab the paper and the second she closed the door he went “I’ve had enough now… Just want this done with one way or another I’m knackered and I’ve had enough”

“I know Dad… I know you’re fed up.  You do whatever you need to do and go when you’re ready.  T (wife) will be OK she has all of us so whenever you’re good, you can go”

I’d already promised him faithfully I’d get his wife a Christmas present from him because it was mid-November and he was fretting over her not having one last gift so I promised him she’d have something nice from him without fail.

Then his wife walked back in and he went back to shouting at me for nicking tables and wrapping him up in toilet roll which he was utterly convinced I was doing.

He had those chats with me and did get chance to cross off the last things on his list before telling me he was knackered and getting the nod to go when he was ready which is the most important thing.

Teepa Snow is one of my favourite trainers and advocates for dementia care she’s outstanding and her story of Gladys is relevant to everyone whether your nearest and dearest is a parent, spouse, sibling, dog, cat, hamster or goldfish.

So now you’re all thoroughly depressed – titty sprinkles 😀

I’ll come back later and pick up on the day I lost Cass and how this idiot seemed to know she had a job to do in snapping me out of the tears and snot bubbles and how we hid behind reeds from two golfers whose ball she’d nicked.  Still can’t believe I went along with her stupid idea and we actually hid like a couple of kids stealing sweets from the shop…

Amazing how animals are so finely tuned and know just when to be complete idiots when we need it most.

These are my gents

I’ve looked after older people for the best part of 20yrs and during that time have met countless people like Louis Zamperini whose stories go largely unknown and untold.

Genuinely consider it a huge privilege to have met these people and been able to hear their horrifying, sometimes incredible and truly inspiring accounts first-hand.

Don’t ever make the mistake of thinking older people are boring, dull and lifeless with nothing much to offer the world.   Better still – volunteer and meet them whilst they are still around to share their stories so you can listen and learn in person.  Their stories are such you’d think them too far fetched for a film.

I see movies like this and smile proudly thinking These are my gents 🙂 

Dementia, safeguarding, assessments and the way forward

Many years ago sometime in the mid-late 90s when I was a junior legal secretary and working part time with the community care crisis team, I was fobbed off and ignored by a psychiatrist whose total disregard for a patient and utter contempt for me, was one of the main reasons I ended up going down the path of safeguarding vulnerable adults / managing dementia care.

I’d been asked to sit with a lady whose family were bereft at her supposedly having gone mad overnight and keep her safe until she was assessed by mental health.   For a full hour she described the most bizarre and incredible hallucinations mostly seeing a little girl in Victorian dress, sunflowers that would grow and completely surround us both and a little black and white dog I seemed to think she saw in the form of a springer spaniel.

“Ethel” was an intelligent lady and said she knew the girl and dog weren’t real because she’d been leaning to try and touch them both of which would disappear as soon as she did.  Once or twice she went “Ooh the little dog’s there – can you see him?” 

“I can’t see him no… what is he doing though what can you see?”

“Well he’s just sat there lovely thing but look when I lean to stroke him.  Gone.  He’s gone again they always go when I try to touch them that’s why I know they’re not real”

Even then as a very young and inexperienced teenager, I knew she wasn’t “mad” in the sense.  Her vivid descriptions of what she saw were by far the most bizarre thing I’d ever heard and reminded me of experiences with LSD but she seemed lucid and clear as a bell.   Ethel herself even suggested the hallucinations she was having might have been linked to a recent operation she’d had and was still wearing a patch from.  “My son thinks I’ve lost my marbles he’s the one that rang for you to come here and see if I’m doolally but I’m not love.. honestly I’m all there it’s just my eyes playing tricks”

Consultant psychiatrist arrived speaking in a very thick Asian accent and broken English (Ethel was Scottish too so you can imagine how that one went!!) but despite me trying to explain the conversations we’d had for the last hour, he wasn’t about to have a kid tell him his job and in one quick scribbled signature, she was admitted to the secure mental health unit for older people.   I have never nor will I ever forget that lady and how she pleaded and begged the psychiatrist (and me) to believe her and she wasn’t going mad.   I doubt she will ever have returned home to her flat and will probably have lived out the rest of her days in care pilled up the eyeballs to keep her quiet and manage what was nothing more than her eyes playing tricks.

The long, short and horrible truth is that very few people gave the tiniest toss for older people.  It’s what set me down the path and how / why I ended up working specifically in dementia care and safeguarding vulnerable adults

When I read about “Charles Bonnet Syndrome” some years later it broke my heart to realise that’s what Ethel was suffering from and even she knew it was linked to her sight but back during the 90’s we lived in a very different world when it came to care of older people.  I have known people being very close to misdiagnoses due to CBS as recently as last year however so we’re still in urgent need of educating those that think they’re beyond the capacity to learn anything more.  *Never trust anyone that really takes the view they know all there is to know or can’t learn something from a mere member of public, younger person or unqualified carer.  That’s the height of stupidity and ignorance right there.

The video and TED talk with Oliver Sacks is outstanding and worth setting aside 20 mins to watch with a brew.

I later began teaching staff in dementia care and used my own little way of getting points over acting out roles  to really emphasise the point which everyone loved and said was so much better and they found much more useful than other training sessions / tutors (former actress with national youth and musical theatre don’t you know luvvies!!)  For a while I reserved that teaching style for staff I worked with and knew well not expecting the wider world to understand or find remotely amusing but then I discovered the brilliant “Teepa Snow” whose style and methods are very similar to that of mine.  Again another longer clip but if you get comfy with a brew and a biscuit, she’s well worth the 20 mins talking about dementia here here

Anyway for years I been using this this toolkit published and available to download by Alzheimer’s Society – a brilliant organisation with whom I have been working, helping and don’t intend to appear like I’m ripping on with this.  Far from it they have my utmost respect but can only work with what they have so don’t have the luxury of being able to chop and change the way I have during assessments.  I only make variations to some of the questions based on each person and my understanding of their general knowledge, abilities and limitations.

Nevertheless the toolkit is outdated, irrelevant in many ways and doesn’t always take into account the huge differences people with dementia have – indeed a few professionals don’t even have an understanding that there are many types of dementia – the word being a general umbrella term to describe many types.  It’s like someone being diagnosed with “cancer” of which there are countless types all requiring specific treatment.

You can’t write “has cancer” and expect it to offer a clear, accurate diagnosis or even adequate level of care, support and treatment.

 So within reason I have been making minor adjustments to how I assess and sad thing is we’re not supposed to improve or change things on the hop but it’s so unrealistic and unfair.

There is little room for error – even correct ones and I question whether it’s appropriate for external professionals to be calling it based mostly on just their very brief period of time with someone they may have never met before and without consultation with family, friends or carers.

One lady “J” I used to look after suffered from severe Parkinson’s and was being written off something shocking by a GP who came out to see her, decided to do an on the spot assessment and was scoring her down like he was being paid a tenner to fail her on each question.

“J” was difficult to understand at the best of times but once you knew her, you could understand and converse without any problem. She was a nervous lady and at just 61yrs of age was very young and one of the first and few people to be fitted with an apomorphine pump.  Having an impatient doctor she could barely understand looming above her didn’t help (not sat informally he literally stood over her as she lay in bed stiffened from seizures)

He asked what year it was and she slowly stuttered “Twenty…. two thousand” and he interrupted with a loud scribble on his papers muttering “OK so she is confused as to time and place” and I went “Whoa whoa hang fire – she knows what year it is let her finish” and he said “But she answered that it was the year twenty and then two thousand”

I smirked and went “You’re kidding right??” then leaned in and said to a really terrified looking J “It’s OK sweet don’t worry we’ll do that one again.  What year are we in at the minute?”

“Twenty seventeen… or two thousand seventeen… not sure which is the right way to say it”   I gave her the double thumbs up and went “Nailed it”

He asked her to “point to the one which is a marsupial” and she went “A what?”

The term “Marsupial” was one she’d never heard of before – not everyone will so again I chipped in “Which might you associate with the word “Skippy” and without missing a beat “The kangaroo”

“Which two objects are musical?” (Harp and accordion straight away)

Which object is nautical?”  (“What?  What’s Nautical?”)

“Linked to the ocean – ”

She answered before I could finished with “Penguin” which technically wasn’t wrong  – ocean and penguin do go together so I re-worded the question and asked “Which is linked to sailing / the Navy” and straight away “Oh – Anchor”

Bearing in mind this assessment has been completed with vascular dementia many of whom can’t take in and process information that way.   I have Dyscalculai (number dyslexia) and get major brain overload if hit with information I neither need nor can work with.  I like it short, sweet, simple and for that reason understand how horrible and frustrating it is to be bombarded with lengthy complex instruction.

One of my all time “favourite” residents (even though I’m not supposed to have favourites but it’s impossible not to with people like her) was Phyllis who had vascular dementia and like many would get flustered and flummoxed.    I used to joke that when she got herself wound up she sounded like Mr Jelly all “Lloobboooblbooo!!” thinking the world’s going to end when a leaf brushes the window which had her in fits of giggles because she knew I adored her and agreed she did “get my knicks in a twist”

I’ve been in the job a long while and like to think I get the best from people by approaching things in a way that works best for them.  I couldn’t joke and banter with everyone the way I could with Phyllis and vice versa but if you molly-coddled her too much it made her worse and the bawling gave way to actual tears and distress so you had to stop her in her tracks before she go run away with herself.

Ask if she wanted to wear a blue jumper because it will go nice with the tartan skirt and necklace or the pink top that will match her beige skirt and pearls… She’d never answer that in a million years without collapsing into tears.

Quite often she’d start telling you she doesn’t know anything anyway so you’d need to stop her – pick both tops up and in a nice loud and clear voice “Phyllis!!  Which one? Blue or Pink?”

“Pink”

So when Phyllis had a visit from the same impatient GP I made sure I was there during the assessment.   He visited with a young OT who was pleasant enough and very nice towards but got her in a pickle from the from the outset reading long paragraphs of text directly from the page and confusing me as well.

“Phyllis I am going to give you a name and address. After I have said it, I want you to repeat it. Remember this name and address because I am going to ask you to tell it to me again in a few minutes: John Brown, 42 West Street, Kensington”

Phyllis burst into “I can’t remember anything I’ll never answer that I don’t anything me I just don’t – “

Me – “OK stop stop stop.  Phyllis.  Remember this – “Mr Smith, High Street, Town” Say it with me first (she said it with me no problem)  “OK try and remember I’ll ask you in a tick”

She said tearfully she’d never remember (always did) but I chipped in and with very little prompting save for gestures with my hand to indicate she was right and could keep going she recalled the name and address.

To satisfy the GP and OT we did the name and address from the assessment – same way allowing her a bit of extra time and patience – she nailed it.

They were about to score her down for being unable to recall the last year of the second world war until I gestured for them to give her a minute or so.  The second world war ended a long while ago she’d slept since then and her brain wasn’t up to pulling facts and figures out the back so easily.

She correctly answered but here’s the interesting thing.

The question directly after is “Who is the present monarch” and Phyllis – as others have done answered “King George” which to be honest impresses me every time.

I’d struggle to answer that without a few mins and a quick search on Google so when she was being marked down, I chipped in and pointed out she’d just had her brain go digging in the back of the store room to recall info from WWII so with the question straight after relating to the monarchy, it’s not completely unreasonable for her to have answered the monarch back then rather than now.  The OT got what I meant and nodded “Ahhh yeah of course” so allowed me to reword it.

“It was King George you’re right but who is the present Monarch – who’s on the throne now?”  “Oh ermmm… Elizabeth”

So later this year one of my oldest and closest friends and I are going to sit down and look atthe assessment toolkit from scratch.

She is a highly esteemed clinical psychologist and therapist, one of only a handful qualified to teach a very unique form of intensive therapy and assistant professor at a university in Canada.

I have formed alliances with friends and colleagues (past and present) many of whom are in a great position to help get things brought right up to date – three are OT’s, two physios and the rest a nice mix of social workers and registered managers.  Without collective clout, qualification and expertise anything put forward to give clinical toolkit a revamp will be worth minus four jack-diddly-squats.

That said without the hands on, direct care experience of health care assistants, friends, family and others not considered to be knowledgeable enough to be worth listening to – changes to assessment toolkit aren’t worth diddly either.

I volunteer as a dementia friend, champion and offer informal training to care home staff so have already invited people to bombard me with their views, thoughts and opinions whatever they are but there are always going to be things missed and not even give a thought unless and until.  Those not already familiar with or following Kate Swaffer should pay her a visit as it was a recent post of hers that prompted this.

Much is based on individual experiences but that’s what counts.  I would love to hear from anyone that has a thing or two to chip in with – even if it’s just to vent and release similar stories.

I’m all ears and can only promise everything will be given due time and attention to see how we an work it and at the end of this year, I’ll bring everything to what will be long weekend sat pouring over the assessments and trying to drag it kicking and screaming into 2020

The good thing is we’ve come a long way since back when I escorted Ethel to the mental health unit as an unqualified “bit of kid” as was the term used to describe me.

Minimum care standards and safeguarding policy stepped things up and the more recent introduction of mental capacity / deprivation of liberty safeguards  came into play and have at least made sure we don’t see more cases of Ethel or young, unqualified carers ignored as standard.

Still having some problems with MCA / DoLS assessments and such but we will never have perfection nor the need to stop doing everything to improve.

My son has many health and learning disabilities including sensory processing disorder which affects the way his brain “sees” and processes information to the extent the lead Occupational Therapists asked for permission to use his assessment and results as part of training.   She had never seen anyone whose brain processed information the same way and it was so unique I understand his task of copying the Olympic rings is currently rolling around on handouts given during training.

Sam spent ages drawing an outline of what looked like a flower and then filled in curves and lines inside of it.  Took him ten minutes after which he was asked to describe the shapes and asked if he recognised the image as circles overlapping.  Only when it was pointed out did he go “Oh yeah… I didn’t see it like that until now”

Sam was failed miserably and referred to specialists so late the OT went nuts and said he was too old for therapy and the best she could offer was support for him in the shape of extra time and use of laptops, aids and adaptations to make his life easier whilst studying and whilst she diagnosed severe dyspraxia when he was 11yrs old, he was only formally diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome at 16yrs following five years being home-schooled because the local authority refused to accept the level of difficulty he would have being placed in a failing secondary school with nearly 2000 pupils about thirty of which had already bullied him relentlessly throughout primary school.

I knew Sam would struggle with a considerable part of the cognitive assessments used for older people so got him to complete the tests with me.

His score was dire.  He’s absurdly intelligent with a daft high IQ but were he not 17yrs of age and a borderline genius he’d have been misdiagnosed for sure.

The questions regarding the former female prime minister and current prime minister caught him out because the current PM is female.  He also tripped up re: name of US president and the one assassinated during the 60’s – initially answering Kennedy for both then backpedaling having realised his mistake.

What made him screw his face up like he’d just taken a swig of last week’s milk?

“WTF is a marsupial?” 

 

It’s so hot I just saw the dog chasing a cat…

…and both were walking.

Not one for the obligatory posting about the weather but I just had a little visitor rock up in my kitchen in the form of an old Yorkshire Terrier “Leo”

Leo lives at the end of our lane on a private dirt track road with his owner “B” who is an elderly lady suffering from dementia. We’ve had Leo rock up at ours a few times after B inadvertently shut the front door whilst he was still outside and he kind of makes his way to ours if he’s stuck knowing the two big dogs we have are friendly after all – still curls up into the tiniest ball and rolls onto his back “Don’t get me big dogs please!!!” but thankfully neither of my dogs are in the least bit aggressive so he’s good.

In fact it was Puddi’s super friendly “I’ll roll with you” that just alerted me to Leo being round the side of ours near the pens cos I was walking back carrying a bucket, nearly tripped over Pud and went “What’you doing – ooh hello Leo!!”

His owner bless her hadn’t a clue she was walking around carrying a lead in her hand but minus the dog so my Son Sam kindly picked Leo up and walked them back home.

This weather always brings with it the need to keep an eye on older, vulnerable people who can become ill easily in this heat but those with pets I guess need even extra care and pairs of eyes.

Leo had an adventure a few months wandering further than he normally would and being picked up by some roofers working on a property who kindly took him to the nearest vets and handed him in. Fortunately it’s our vet and they were happy enough for us to go pick Leo up and bring him back home.

I didn’t have his papers to hand so couldn’t confirm all his details but the practice manager laughed “Nah you’re border collie people you won’t have much use for a fat little Yorkie eh?”

They were good enough to include my contact details on Leo’s record as a backup in case he’s handed in again and they can’t contact B which is good but not all veterinary practices would do that (not sure they’re supposed to really but we are added as a footnote with a little explanation)

Sadly dementia doesn’t get any better and B looks to have deteriorated since the day we took Leo home from the vets and I scouted out her circumstances at home to make sure she has support.   She has carers that visit often and my husband has seen them quite regularly which is good – she’s at least having someone actually going into her house and making sure she’s OK.

Even still I’m now worried that Leo might end up shut out again in this weather so have left the back gate and the patio doors wide open so if he goes on the wander again he at least has a place of safety, shade and big dish of fresh drinking water.

So if you happen to have elderly neighbours especially with pets – please just give them a quick look in and make sure they’re all OK.