DM has been living on her own for the last year following several bereavements (previously lived with her parents and brother). She's 70 and recently she's been worrying me. I think she may start to be getting dementia but I'm not sure what to do about it as she still functions on her own absolutely fine and she's adamant she doesn't want any outside help.
Examples are what seem to be auditory hallucinations - she always hears the phone ringing or the doorbell going in the middle of the night but there's no one there. She's very forgetful - I had to make some hospital appointments for her (she can't hear well and doesn't understand well on the phone), and despite telling her over several times and days when they were she kept phoning me up to check as couldn't remember at all what I'd told her.
Just now she's phoned me in a panic asking me to go over to check an answerphone message she can't hear, as the only thing she can think it might be is 'them phoning to say she's caught coronavirus' - she literally couldn't think who else it might be (e.g. friends, other family, the doctor with her test results etc).
On their own they're just little things but starting to become more common and frequent. Is there anything I can do now in case she is developing dementia?