Calming the Tides

Tonight, I had a phone call from a woman who was trying everything in her power not to yell at her mother with Alzheimer's Disease. It was 1:00 am in the morning, and her mother was up in the front room of their apartment screaming that she wanted to go "home". Unfortaunately, her home had been deemed unfit to live in, because it had been neglected for so long and had pet excrament and urine all over the house. Her mother had been given Seroquel by the doctors, but nothing was soothing her mother's agitation tonight.

Calmly, the caller ask what she could do. The front and back door to the apartment were locked and she wasn't worried about her mother leaving the house so much as she was possibly going to make a lot of noise or start breaking things.

We went through different re-direction techniques, like giving the mother a cup of tea and a cookie, or telling her that the family would "go home" tomorrow as a little white lie. These methods seemed to sooth the mother for mere moments though, but her mind was still racing and she was talking non-stop about different things. I asked the caller to reminisce with her mother about an old memory or story she likes to repeat to others. But this wasn't working either, so finally, I asked the caller to say good night to her mother and walk into another room. I was hoping that this would switch her mother's train of thought to self-sooth.

However, we had no such luck. The caller thanked me and said that she would probably have to sleep in her mother's room tonight to get her to sleep. I fely bad that I couldn't do more.