Reclusive client exhibiting ALZ… what should I do?

pno2nr

Hello all… I’m a newbie and neither a health care professional nor caregiver, but I’m acquainted with a long term business client exhibiting obvious cognitive decline and symptoms of Alzheimer’s.  He lives alone, he’s very reclusive, and he’s a curmudgeon… rarely leaves his house, has no social interactions, no immediate family, no visiting friends that I’m aware of. 

 

I’ve observed minor symptoms of his cognitive decline across the past year, but this month I’m alarmed at his oblivious repetition of lengthy stories during my one-hour equipment maintenance visit.  Clearly something is wrong.

  

What action, if any, would you recommend?  Try to carefully discuss this with him? (a difficult task considering his temperament)  Urge him to seek professional consultation?  Try to cull out contact information on any distant relatives whom I might contact?  I’m not sure how to handle this, but I feel I should do something.  I fear that he’ll rapidly decline, completely unnoticed, until something terrible happens.  Thank you… I appreciate your advice.

loveskitties

How wonderful that you care enough to be concerned.

You can call your local social services or counsel on aging and report your concerns.  If they take the case they will go to do a home visit to determine if any actions need to be taken.

You can ask that your name is not given as the reporter to your customer, so that you can maintain your relationship with him.

The one thing you might try with your customer, is to tell him that your company has asked for an emergency contact or next of kin to be added to all accounts.  He might go for that and give you something to pass on to social services, or to use yourself if they don't open a case.

Thank you for your kindness to an elder who appears to be alone.