Best practices for keeping someone with frontotemporal dementia inside?

Post date: 2020-03-30 04:27:09

What are ways to ensure someone with FTD (who hates staying inside and impulsively bolts when you're e.g. in the bathroom) doesn't take off?

My brother and I are taking turns caring for our dad, because neither of us can handle it indefinitely on our own. Brother suggested getting an alarm for the door, so I'll do that. Will also have television programs of interest streaming most of the time (nature shows, religious programming which will drive me ***bananas*** but will keep him quiet], shows from the old country, news). Apparently chair yoga is going well, so there will be more of that.

Short walks in my neighborhood aren't a great idea right now because there's a high density of unwell people who are agitated, desperate, and sometimes aggressive. Hopefully, my dad would avoid them, but idk. He also just likes to talk to people and I'm sure others wouldn't be keen to have social distancing protocols breached.

Goal #1 is keeping parent inside, this is tricky. He's extremely mobile. Being inside is "like prison". He's bolted more than once.

(Goal #2, if there are tips for this, is to stay sane amid incessant repetition of the same six snippets of stereotyped speech. I'm pretty patient - for eg 8 hours at a time, after which I tend to want some space... idk about days and weeks on end.)

This has to be the way to go. PSW visits with him at his own place aren't safer, and he'd be out roaming around if we left him to his own devices. Homes aren't taking anyone new, and we feel that'd be riskier than this.

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