My MIL is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. It is in the moderate stage. She still has decent short term memory, but it is accompanied by aphasia. She has a lot of trouble with word finding and can’t speak that well. She calls her arm a leg and the color red is blue. She knows she is saying them wrong but she has a hard time correcting herself. In addition her cognitive skills are poor. For example, she can no longer perform even basic mathematics. She is also legally blind because of macular degeneration.
Since she can’t read, watch TV, sew, or really do much to entertain herself other than listen to music and do chores (poorly) we thought she might enjoy going to an adult day care where she could interact with other people, dance, have stories told to her, and the like.
The problem is that we don’t have a way to get her to one without our involvement. She has a caregiver for a few hours per day but that person can’t hang around and wait for her while she is in day care. It would get too expensive. Unfortunately, we can’t take her regularly and she is no longer able to reliably use Uber or taxis without assistance.
Will adult day cares provide door to door shuttle service or how do people with dementia generally get to and from?
Call your local Area Agency on Aging to find out what services are available.
Contact the program that is in your area and find out if they provide transportation.
If not nursing students, you may also be able to find someone from EMT or fire fighting organizations - someone who wants some extra pay, maybe someone who retired recently.
Your senior center admins may also have some ideas.
I sourced a couple of very dependable ladies to stay 2-4 hours at a time with my mom after she became bedridden from local churches. They were older ladies who had raised their families and liked having some extra money to spend on their grandchildren.
My experience is there is usually a fairly economical solution out there if we can think about where we might find the type of person we want to help and then the gumption to ASK for that help.
Perhaps, it may be time to consider possible facility placement options for her since it sounds like, as with most families, there are limited options for someone being in home 24/7 with her, which is either where you are now or will be soon.
The typical routes include supermarkets and malls, routine medical visits and some social activity sites. Information should be available from your county information sources.
We have a city sponsored shuttle service that will take her anywhere for $0.25 but she isn’t able to use it because it requires making reservations in advance and she can’t do that herself. Frankly, it is rather difficult to schedule and they make other stops along the way to service others and it just seems too complicated for her to use.
Also, they will only wait at the curb and I really need someone who will come up to the house to get her, especially until she settles into a routine and learns to wait on the sidewalk at a certain time.
She has no issues getting into a car and behaving once inside so one person is fine. She even took a plane flight by herself. She just needs someone to meet her at each end of the trip.
It is funny you mention church because that is another place she would like to go but she has no way to get there and back. The parishioners at her old parish wouldn’t mind taking her but she would have to go to a new church now since she moved and she doesn’t know anyone there. I thought about talking to the priest about her situation to see if he had suggestions on how to get her to and from church on Sundays.
Somethng concernd me though...she needs to contact an agency. Does this mean she is left alone at times? How can she call 911 in case of an emergency like a fire? Please ask her PCP if she should be left alone any longer.
Someone mentioned using nursing students which I must caution. Students are not licensed. Nor do students get much info on elder care until they do clinicals. They are learning about A and P plus pharmaceuticals. Even working in a hospital takes about a year of experience to learn about dementia care. For volunteers you might get young students who know little about safety or older ones who have families and may not have the time.
I do agree that a day care would offer social enhancement with others like her. Stagnating at home might just further progress her disease
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