I've been trying to get my mum's doctor to give her a geriatric assessment for months and he's finally done it. He phoned today and said he believes she is in the early stages of dementia. So far she can still pretty much manage (though she seems to have a huge amount of missing money, I'm going to take her to the bank tomorrow and see if we can find it). I'm going to call the Alzheimer's society tomorrow and Elder Outreach and see what can be done for her. Also see if me or my niece can get power of attorney so she doesn't give it all away to the cat's home. I don't want to infantalise her, but it is worrying. She would drive me mad living with us (and we don't have an extra private room either), but I worry she'll get lost one day, or burn down her flat.
Does anyone else have any helpful hints gleaned from dealing with a relative with this condition. My mum's still remembering everyone, doing her crosswords, getting her own groceries and watching her favourite shows (though watching Becker has got to be a sign of some form of dementia!). So still functioning, but her functioning is impaired as she doesn't remember what she did yesterday. Ever.