The Dementia Diaries:Tales from an unprepared carer

Dad was already attending a social club and a lunch club and had a weekly 2 hour care call which was set up as respite for mum. The problem was that the lunch club was fortnighly and the social club was once a month. Dad has always been a very sociable person and if he wasn’t given regular opportunities to socialise then the likelihood was that he would go out and seek company. Dad has amazing friends. Several have offered to take him out, but I needed something more regular and guaranteed as I need to return to work, so can’t visit every day.

In the first few weeks I was able to get some more sustainable arrangements in place. Dad is now attending a day centre once a week and has two midday care calls each week of two hours to take him out for coffee and lunch. A friend has offered to take dad to a community group on the weeks that there is no lunch club and on another morning. This will leave two consecutive days with no planned activities. My current plan is to visit on these days, stay overnight and attempt to work from there. That should give me time to keep on top of weekly chores.

Although dad has a lot in place, he still has a lot of time alone, so we will have to see how he manages with this. It is still very early days.