She Wants To Go Home
She Wants To Go Home
My wife wants to go home, sometimes a hundred times on one day, we are married for 48 years and lived in the same house we live in now for 45 years, she must be hallucinating, but she may start with the same request two days later. So far I have tried to steer her mind in a different direction that works only sometimes to a bit later hear the same request to go home.
Has anybody any advice that I could try?
When my mom Alzheimer’s was getting worse, she often wanted to go home. For a while we would put her in the car. Drive around the block and then tell her she was home. It usually fixed the problem!
I had a door mat made with my parents' name and
"Welcome to our Home" on it, and we have a sign on the gate with both their names on it, so my mom sees them every day. It helps some to show her that this is her house - even though she constantly wants to "go home". I also had a book made through Walgreens with photos of the house and her in the house and made the title "This Is Our House" to help remind her.
I read that the best answer is to say “So do I”” “How about some ice cream”. Or something to distract. Distraction works.
my father in law says "where's my truck I need to go home" every single day for the past year. I say " please stay. I feel safer with you here and we have a really nice bedroom for you to use." It usually works because it makes him feel useful and he is helping me. It also makes him feel that it is his decision to stay as opposed to him feeling he has no options.
My wife did that early on and then when first in a care facility. Since she no longer communicates it is not on the table. Several care givers and reading in Alzheimers care books suggest that the desire to go home is a reversion to childhood and a wish to return to the safe place of a childhood home. As each Alzheimers patient it different is hard to really answer the question. I would just tell her she was at home and in her safe rock house. As a geologist she fell in love with the house and the stone coating. Perhaps there is something special about your home?
