Will dementia respite care accept dad after recent agitation and absconding?

[IDontLikeMondays88]

Dad is probably stage 6 dementia.

we have lined up a months respite care due to start this week. However today he has forcibly left the house twice and been brought back twice. Very agitated and still wanting to leave the house. When I say forcibly he started trying to break a window with a walking stick so had to let him go.

can anyone advise on whether respite care likely to refuse to take him because of all this. It is a specialised dementia unit

Just a thought.. could your Dad be brewing a UTI / constipation or other infection which can cause agitation & confusion in people with dementia?

So I don’t think so as he keeps on doing this. Although not as bad at this.

we thought it had settled down a bit with medication but no!

When did they do their assessment and was he displaying this level of need when they assessed?

If this is new for him then a call to the GP tomorrow to check for infection etc is needed and then take it from there - if its a UTI and antibiotics settle things down then there may not be an issue.

If this is not new for him and the respite placement have assessed that they can meet his needs regardless then that is also OK.

However, if they can't take him and he continues to be this agitated and a risk to himself or to other people then it's another call to the GP or to whichever mental health team he is under to discuss if he may require an admission to hospital under the Mental Health Act to see if it is something that can be treated or if he needs specialist care longer term.

Are you as his carers getting plenty of support from e.g. the Memory Team?

They assessed him last week and we had said about the trying to leave and being agitated but also that medication had seemed to settle it a bit

however it is now very clear it’s not settled down

he is under care of the community psychiatric team for older people who are reasonably helpful but struggling to get any real engagement from social work. Don’t even have an allocated social worker yet

If he is trying to smash windows and becoming aggressive towards people trying to stop him from leaving then he probably needs a Mental Health Act assessment rather than a standard social work assessment (Care Act Assessment) anyway.

Speak to the community psychiatric team tomorrow and advise you feels he needs an assessment due to the risks - that its becoming unmanageable and you are worried about the sustainability of the respite placement.

All Adult Social Care would be able to do at this stage is arrange the same respite you have already arranged or ask GP/ Community Psychiatric team to do a Mental Health Act Assessment.

Equally though don't sit and wait for ASC to get involved - call them and let them know it's become unmanageable and see what they can do to support getting the required assessments.

Thank you @hatgirl
community pyschiatric team have been saying they didn’t think mental health ward the right place for him but his behaviour very changeable
so yesterday was ok - pretty quiet
today has been trying to break out since 10am and brought back by police twice