Mother-in-law with dementia. So overwhelmed

[Waterlogged]

Hello,

I'm looking for advice on behalf of my partner, whose mum (68y) was diagnosed with frontal-temporal dementia earlier this year. She lives alone in S London and is able to get out and about (with encouragement), but is quickly becoming more anxious, confused and reluctant to go outside. Recently she went to visit a familiar place and suddenly didn't recognise where she was. She also struggles with managing money, eating regular meals and taking and 3x daily medication.

My partner has applied for PoA (health/legal), which is pending. He's also set up a timed dossete box to dispense her pills but is unable to visit every weekend to refill this, meaning MIL often misses/takes the wrong dose.

My partner is looking to move his mum closer to us (W London, where she grew up). He is an only child and there's not much family around to help. Plus we have a new baby so he's juggling a lot.

Mother-in-law owns her home and the plan is to sell this home and rent/buy a flat in sheltered accommodation nearer to us. Is this a good idea? Should we be buying or renting? She also has 25k in savings. Any other options you'd recommend?

If you have experience in this, what would you do? I don't even know where to begin.

Thank you

@Mum5net great advice, thank you. We have an app called Life360 which tracks his mum/her phone. Will look into air tags for the future, and I'm pushing for trusted neighbour to have a key in case of emergency . Such great support on here

I would echo a key safe - it means that if there is a way to tell eg paramedics how to get in

We moved fil and mil into assisted living in December near to us as Fil was diagnosed with mixed dementia. By March Mil was in a care home after her behaviour deteriorated. Firstly she went into respite as a break from fil as she was saying she was going to leave him and move back to her childhood home. In respite her behaviour fell off a cliff, aggressive and dangerous. Whilst there they diagnosed vascular dementia as she had had scans previously and we were waiting for the diagnosis. They pushed the diagnosis through and she had a DOLS placed on her and then into a care home as we were worried she would place FIL in danger if she moved back home. The move highlighted how little she was coping at home and how she could not function properly due to confusion.

Personally I think a care home would be the best next step but that is a huge and difficult step to take.