Scared and worried

[Vcal2017]

Hi from Australia. I’ve posted on Dementia and Alzheimers but haven’t had much success. I’m just looking for similar experiences so I can try and work out what I’m dealing with.

1. My Dad has Altzheimers. He’s had it for about 3 years. He is in a care home.
2. Care home say he is verbally and physically aggressive and goes into other residents rooms. They want to put him on medication. Fair enough.
3. Medication does not work. He remains aggressive and threatening each time he is conscious.
4. care home adds medication to 3 times a day and wants to move him into a more secure area.
5. New medication regime means he’ll now probably be asleep 16/18 hours a day.

For context he has a heart condition and is 84. If he’s asleep so much he probably won’t be eating and drinking much. Is this end of life, but they’re just not saying so? Any advice etc v v v v grateful to receive.

It’s not appropriate to give him medication to make him sleep all the time. Sometimes medication has to be used as physical violence is unacceptable. But if that medication is not calming him it should be reviewed and not just increased.
Is he in a specialist dementia unit ? They should be providing care appropriate to his needs.
Have they had any input from the older people’s mental health team. This should be happening, and should include a detailed review of his behaviour and the reasons for it. For eg - is he in pain, are there particular triggers for his behaviour , is the medication making him worse rather than better. A full assessment should help staff to be managing his symptoms and not just relying on sedating him.
Increase in medication can cause many issues - falls, reduced hydration, specific side effects. Its use can be entirely necessary in slime situations bu5 it should never be the only way to manage the situation

Surely you can't just drug complex patients so they sleep all the time