I started caring for an elderly woman in the home of her daughter & son-in-law. She's had three strokes & a concussion. She forgets where she is, how old she is, who other people are. She sees things & people that aren't there. It seems lately she's been getting worse. She'll want to go out looking for her husband & mother, & when I tell her that her husband & mother died many years ago, she gets beligerent. It used to be that if she was talking nonsense, I could just make something up to appease her, but that's not working anymore. She's gotten physical w/ me over the last few months. What is the proper way to respond to her when she talks about seeing people who aren't there, or wanting to go visit people who are dead? She's very stubborn & obstinate & insists she doesn't need help w/ anything, so caring for her has been getting harder, too. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I started caring for an elderly woman in the home of her daughter & son-in-law. She's had three strokes & a concussion. She forgets where she is, how old she is, who other people are. She sees things & people that aren't there. It seems lately she's been getting worse. She'll want to go out looking for her husband & mother, & when I tell her that her husband & mother died many years ago, she gets beligerent. It used to be that if she was talking nonsense, I could just make something up to appease her, but that's not working anymore. She's gotten physical w/ me over the last few months. What is the proper way to respond to her when she talks about seeing people who aren't there, or wanting to go visit people who are dead? She's very stubborn & obstinate & insists she doesn't need help w/ anything, so caring for her has been getting harder, too. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Does she have Alzhiemers? My grandmother does.. and I've dealt with people who do, and act like your lady does.. it sounds bad, but I try to just kinda change the subject. Usually works. Or just tell her that there's nobody their, and whoever she wants to see isn't home.

There is medicine to help calm down this troubled woman. She is very delusional and out of touch with reality. Can the Registered Nurse or social worker call the doctor and tell him how far she has gotten worse? It could be reversible and caused by medicine interactions (or other things) if she is taking a lot of medicine or it is probably chronic and long term from the strokes (a dementia as mentioned) and the head injury. Perhaps the doctor is willing to do tests to see if there is anything going on that he can change. Perhaps a little relaxing medicine could be given but one must be very careful in the elderly to not give too much medicine as they can very easily become over-sedated. A common thing is to "start low (in medication dosage) and go slow" (in medication increases).