Charlotte
Charlotte’s mother has dementia alongside other health conditions. Her mother requires numerous carers to visit her at home to ensure she is getting the care she needs. Charlotte manages this care through visits and remotely.
Charlotte cares for her mother, who has dementia.
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Charlotte noticed changes in her mother’s behaviour and that her mother was pretending to be able to do things she clearly could not do. Her mother’s doctor was also concerned and contacted Charlotte as she thought her mother was taking too many tablets. Charlotte’s mother was forgetting she had taken her tablets and then was taking more. The doctor also thought that Charlotte’s mother was forgetting when she had been visiting the doctor’s surgery, so they arranged for a social worker to do a care assessment. After getting an MRI scan, Charlotte’s mother was diagnosed with mixed dementia. Charlotte feels that without the help from her mother’s GP, her mother would have “fallen through the cracks a bit” as the social care system is “all over the place.”
Charlotte’s mother has high care needs and four domiciliary care visits a day. Charlotte does not live with her mother, so she has to coordinate her mother’s care during visits and remotely. She has found working with carers and the council to be a learning curve and closely monitors everything. She uses a rota and checklist, and the carers provide a narrative of her mother’s care to keep her informed.
Charlotte talks about her own physical problems and her ability to manage her mother’s care.
Charlotte talks about her own physical problems and her ability to manage her mother’s care.
Hugely, yeah. I mean, I’ve had to, ‘cos I had to give up my career anyway because I’ve had, as I said, I have health problems and I got I basically had glandular fever which went into ME. And I, so, it’s a chronic long-term condition I had even before mum was ill. But and then I had, I did voluntary work and I part-time but I’ve basically had to give them up because I need the flexibility of going home and also mum’s needs and management of her primarily, but also running her house and home on top of that. Getting her shopping done. Making sure the house is clean. Making sure the carers are doing a proper job. Making sure her prescription is up to date ‘cos she, not only does she have her medication, she has supplemental things as well to that. It is just all consuming and extremely, I’m just frazzled the whole time as you probably [laughs] as you may tell. I’m just really really tired.