81 year old losing it - how can you tell?

[Flyhigher]

So - how can you tell if your Mum is losing it?
My mum has got into fights with tenants.
Threw away some of their items.
She's 81. How did you know your mum was losing it and how did you resolve it?

I assume by “losing it” you are asking about early signs of dementia or cognitive decline
It is very hard to tell. Personality changes can definitely be part of it. As are subtle changes in ability to think rationally and logically
If it’s just fights with tenants I wouldn’t jump to “it must be dementia”
maybe ask for this to be moved to Elderly Parents and give some more context

Losing it? Not exactly a nice term. I assume
you mean dementia, but what do you mean resolve it? What actions do you want to achieve? A diagnosis?

Also is it a really sudden decline or has it happened slowly?

Losing it? Losing what exactly?

It's hard to say.
But she shouts a lot. Gets super aggressive.
Forgets what she has said.
She emptied a tenants flat of children's toys and threw them away. They hadn't paid for 5 months.
But it's very aggressive. She was asked to go with an estate agent to evict tenants and refused.

She just seems so much more aggressive and irrational.

She's definitely more forgetful and more angry.
She's always been angry.

She might have a bladder infection. That can make older people aggressive & confused op. Check with her dr.

Yes I’d ask her to see a Dr. She doesn’t sound fit to manage tenancies herself. The agents should tell her the police could become involved if she doesn’t leave it to them.
Do you have Power of Attorney set up? This may be your last chance to put it in place. Maybe she would agree to sell the property? It may reduce her anxiety.

Is she aware of her behavoural changes herself? Have you tried talking to her about them. My Mum is the same age and I notice a decline, but fortunately we are able to talk about it. I would try that first. If she won’t admit it, I am not sure what best to do.

Also, if she is finding managing things a bit much now and it is making her aggressive (this has happened with my Mum), could you take over some of her day to day responsibilities? I have PoA for my Mum, it might be a good idea for you to look into that too.

We have POA. But she's pretty stubborn.
We have it in the uk and in Spain.

Are you in the same country as her? Are the tenants in the UK?

Tenants are in Spain. We are both in uk.

Does anyone have a Mum that slowly lost her ability to deal with difficult situations?

How did you know? And how did you manage to transition to full management?

What is full management? You can’t force POA if she’s just struggling with difficult situations, unless that’s what she wants obviously. Have you considered what people have said about bladder infections? Is she showing signs of dementia?