Dad constantly agitated and exit seeking

[IDontLikeMondays88]

Dad has advanced dementia. He is constantly exit seeing and gets very very agitated if he can’t leave the house (climbing out windows, attempting to smash windows etc). My mum is his carer but is now at the edge of reason with all of this - can no longer cope.

he was admitted for emergency respite yesterday and I’ve already had two phone calls from
the care home to say he has hurt himself in his attempts to leave the care home.

he has various sedative type medications none of which making a difference when he is in this state. All quite low doses of stuff because he is a fall risk (but he is a fall risk anyway if he is trying to climb out windows).

i am really extremely worried the home are going to say they can’t meet his needs and then what happens.

has anyone been in this situation?

i am going to call the consultant on Monday and ask for an urgent review of his meds. Is there anything else we should be doing.

The carehome can call the doctor for an urgent review of his injuries and medication, if he has hurt himself and is becoming agitated they can call the on call doctor. carehomes can call the equivalent of 111 or ambulance if hes badly hurt.

Have the local authority mental health team been in involved at all?
It sounds like they need to be on board with regards to safeguarding if he’s trying to escape.

He may need much stronger meds so a review should carried out to assess him properly.
I was in your situation two years ago but my father was frightened, shouting and very angry when I put him in emergency respite.
He never attempted to escape but he could be violent, lashing out and hitting when he was frightened.
The home couldn’t cope with him after a couple of days and I was told to take him to hospital for a complete review of his meds and mental state.

He’d been given one anti depressant after another by his clueless GP and these were really detrimental to his general health.
Long story short he ended up in a care home of our choosing where MHT reviewed him and put him on strong anti psychotic drugs to keep him calm. DOLS team were also involved as he kept asking to go home.
He's much calmer now but has voluntarily made himself bedridden for about a year now as he feels safest in bed and doesn’t want to leave it.
It’s a truly awful disease and he’d been horrified if he could see himself.
There is so little help out there and you really have to fight on his behalf but it sounds like he needs a lot more than this home can offer.
Good luck OP

That sounds really hard, I'm so sorry. My mum fortunately had restricted mobility, but a friends relative had really difficult behaviours and the care home were able to get input from a specialist team to adjust medication and tactics to deal with it. They did eventually move to a different home with a more intensive support unit but it was a managed thing and I know it took some time - and it was really successful. I know that at one point it was suggested they might move to a psychiatric unit where their medications could be changed more easily

He is under the care of the community psychiatric team for older people who keep tinkering with his meds but nothing is working.

but everything is pretty low doses of stuff as I understand it on the basis he is a fall risk if they load him up with medication. But the thing is he is a fall risk anyway if he is trying to climb out windows.

i am going to be on to the community psych team on Monday and I’m going to insist on a medication review and that I speak to the actual consultant as at the moment everything is filtered through a nurse.

seriously concerned the home will say they can’t deal with him.