Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Confused elderly neighbour. What do I do?

31 replies

TheEmperorIsNaked · 19/11/2022 05:32

She lives in the flat above me, and up until the summer I barely heard a sound from her and her husband. Then one night, at 2am, she rang my intercom to be let in. That was odd enough because she had her keys in her hand! But she also didn’t have her teeth in and could barely walk. She didn’t appear to recognise me and didn’t apologise for waking me up. Totally out of character.

Since then she’s had a couple of driving incidences and has had to give up her licence. Then, a couple of weeks ago she threw her husband out. She used to be pottering around in the garden by 7am every day but now I can hear her moving around all night! I rarely see her during the day anymore.

Tonight she has rang the intercom twice; first at 2.30 and then at 4:30. The first time she said her niece was outside waiting for her but there was nobody there! I watched her go upstairs and was listening out for her to shut the door, which she never did. I could hear her talking but I was sure she was alone so I went to check on her. Her door was wide open so I called out to her and she thought I was her husband! She wasn’t at all bothered about the door but I said goodnight and made sure it was shut when I left, obviously.

When she buzzed at 4:30 she told me she’d just popped to the shops Confused I told her I was very worried about her and she really mustn’t go wandering off at night. She told me that she never goes out at night and then said it’s been dark all day. She clearly has no idea what’s day and night anymore!

I’m not complaining about any of this. She’s been a good neighbour to me and I’m really sad about what’s happening to her. I know social services are already involved but I don’t know how to contact them. I really don’t think she can be left on her own all night if she keeps wandering off outside.

I’d be grateful for any advice. Thanks.

OP posts:
Tiani4 · 19/11/2022 08:35

'Legislation' not "legisjj Kk action" sorry aituincorect

Peteryougit · 19/11/2022 08:47

Tiani4 · 19/11/2022 08:34

That's why a clearly documented letter of incidents helps. Rather than multiple calls that may miss part of pattern.

The social care help and GP help isn't for OP it's for the client (her neighbour. ) social care have legisjj Kk action to follow. It can get a slow process based on evidence and capacity decisions under MCA 2005 are about least restrictive interventions and care act 2014 is underlay by strengths based practice and human rights.

It's sad to hear your relative was so unwell and GP did not recognise that- mental health diagnoses falls very much under health with GPs being gatekeeper to referrals to the local community mental health teams. Hopefully you did get support in the end. It can take a while to get a diagnosis

No help until it reached crisis point and he was admitted to hospital. Even then I had to
stage as sit in as they were still saying he was fine. I refused to leave until they did a scan. Which showed vascular dementia.

There was years worth of calls to
SS from us, neighbours etc.

I was told a range of things by GPs, from “can you put a lock on his door?” when he was staying with me and wandering to “sometimes people with dementia so wander and get into accidents or hurt themselves or others”. No one cares.

And then when he had a diagnosis no real help as he had money. I was just told he had to pay for a home or got carers but no one could make him do that as he hadn’t been assessed for capacity. That was only done after he’d been in a care home for 6 months.

We are not an isolated case by far. I used to work in dementia care. I saw the same thing play out for other families for years. It’s horrendous.

I just wanted to point out it’s not as easy as calling SS or a GP and then they will be helped. It’s like banging your head against a brick wall sometimes.

Fleurdaisy · 19/11/2022 09:24

If you call at night, in theory you're supposed to get through to the duty social worker. Although it seems like using extra resources calling the police is often the route through to the duty SW.
It sounds like a firm of dementia as confusing day and night is common.

Mentalpiece · 19/11/2022 09:27

You need to call your local safeguarding team.
You will find their number in your local council.
They will carry out an assessment visit and liaise with social services.

TheEmperorIsNaked · 19/11/2022 13:02

Thanks, all of you. I will look up the number for SS and call on Monday. If there’s any instances before then I will call sooner. She’s likely at the same surgery as me, so I’ll call them on Monday too.

As for family, she doesn’t have any children but she does have nieces and nephews, although I have never seen them. I wouldn’t know how to get in touch with any relatives. Her husband is a bastard. She was right to throw him out. He had basically moved into his garage months ago and only seemed to go home to shout at her. Last I heard he’d been given a room in a hostel. He would make things worse if he got involved.

I know she had a UTI in the summer when I first noticed she was acting strange. Hopefully (?), it is back, rather than this being a permanent decline for her.

I’m very sorry that some of you have had to see their loved ones go through this and that SS/GP have been so reluctant to act. That’s awful.

OP posts:
Tiani4 · 19/11/2022 20:35

@TheEmperorIsNaked
You are better off putting it in writing to GP surgery as suggested before
They won't be able to confirm or deny she is a patient at their surgery to you.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread