Someone in my family, who is now in a memory care facility, has dementia.
We tried to avoid it as long as possible, but when we got a call from the police saying that she was found wandering around barefoot in the snow next to a busy road in the middle of the night while hallucinating about “people coming to get her”, it felt like it was time to reconsider.
She’s on meds that control the hallucinations now, but it would still be unsafe for her to leave unsupervised, no matter how much our culture changes. How do you help a stranger who doesn’t know where or who they are, and can’t hear too well to start with? She sure does still remember me and can dance to the Beatles, but I would not be comfortable trusting her welfare to a group of even the most compassionate strangers.
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