tamper-proofing machinery

gringojosh

My Dad has Alzheimer's and frequently checks the oil on his car, lawn mower, etc even when it doesn't need it. He often forgets to put the filler cap back and has ruined some equipment this way. Does anyone have suggestions on how to tamper-proof machinery so he can't damage it? We don't let him drive the car, but he likes to mow the lawn, etc. Thanks.

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harshedbuzz

@gringojosh

Hi and welcome. I am sorry for your reason to be here, but pleased you found this place.

You bring up one of the complications of dementia that is common but less often brought up-- the ability of a PWD to futz around and destroy things which can be expensive to replace. For my dad, it was wireless headphones while my friend's mom destroyed her state-of-the-art hearing aids by putting them in her denture bath.

Sometimes, the simplest strategy is removal. Out of sight being out of mind. That might mean storing smaller hand tools at someone else's house or storing them locked where he won't find them. If he's the only one whose using them and you have the legal means to do so, it could mean selling them-- this especially makes sense for things like cars that can be visual triggers and can be expensive to maintain and are generally losing value as they sit idle.

Another strategy can be to have an expendable version of the tool with which he can futz while keeping the good, working model locked up away from him.

As for the lawnmower, that's harder to manage. Beyond a certain stage in dementia, I wouldn't allow a PWD to operate a power mower. Depending on the size and terrain of the lawn, I would probably stop mowing with a riding mower at the same time as a car and a gas walk-behind by stage 6. Along with the decline in visual processing, the losses in executive function by these stages makes this a risky activity. This is one of those situations where the staging charts that include a developmental age comparison can be helpful. The American Academy of Pediatrician says that kids should be 12 for a walk-behind power mower and at least 16 for riding.

HB

harshedbuzz

@gringojosh

Tam-Cummings-LLC-Handouts.pdf (tala.org)

Page 13 of the above gives an age comparison for Early Stage 5 as being 8-12 for example. Using this as a guideline, even walking mowers should be phased out during this stage.

ShadCronin

My also here because of someone.

Emily 123

‘ml student’, above, is a spammer. Reported.

ButterflyWings

Just chiming in here to advocate that power tools, and especially something with blades 😯 become off-limits even earlier than most are suggesting above. That includes regular and powered saws, lawnmowers, etc). My DH was only Stage 4 when he tried opening a bottle with a steak knife, and sliced his finger pretty deep. He stood there watching the blood drip down with no concept of why. And the next day could not figure out why he had a bandage on his finger.

Other vivid reminders for me that even when he still could talk a good game, he wasn't processing things mentally at all like he thought (anosognosia). Not too long after that, he turned the gas burner on high and set a coffee pot directly on it rather than in the coffee pot machine. It took only a couple of minutes until the handle and lid melted into a terrible smelling, bubbling hot lava pool on our stovetop. He was oblivious the whole time.

So, even the estimates of age-equivalent ranges for the stages of dementia should be taken with grain of salt. Also, none of this takes into account how quickly things can change for our PWD LOs, say in the case of a UTI when they are "fine" (or at least their regular baseline) one moment and literally off the charts confused, making bizarre choices, etc.

Given the narrow misses we have had, and SO many things that went off the rails just short of total catastrophe, I am firmly on team "better safe than sorry" when dementia is in the mix. Mainly, our LOs are in need of "line of sight", "full supervision" much earlier than most folks may think. And it sounds like if he is making these kinds of mistakes with the heavy equipment, he should no longer be left alone to (mis)manage things like that. I have disappeared many things to avert disaster, often after observing something that scared me. You've been getting warning shots from his mishaps so far. Please don't wait until he harms himself or someone else, unintentionally.

housefinch

Think of it this way. You wouldn’t leave a bottle of poison around a toddler and then wonder how to prevent the toddler from drinking it. You put the poison completely out of sight and away. Same thing here.

Emily 123

Hi Josh,

It's really hard to take away things, but the disease can cause short circuits in the thought process, and the loss of short term memory makes completing multi-step tasks difficult.

It's hard to say where in a multi-step task the person might jump to when doing something. As well, the ability to discern a safe vs. unsafe choice (like the gas cap is off and splashing gas everywhere) or knowing how to rescue oneself in case of an accident will slip.

A personal example: I had brought mom over for lunch. She hit her arm on the doorframe going into the bathroom and had a skin tear. Because of the disease, mom's long term memory recalled that she might need to clean it with antiseptic, and it made the Listerine that was on the counter seem like a reasonable choice. Yikes.

That's not such a dangerous example, but shows that the ability to make safe choices is affected. Ordinary tasks become opportunities for the incorrect choices to add up to a poor outcome. The person may recall they need a bottle of something to clean with, but don't recognize that any old bottle won't do.

A lot of times out of sight is out of mind. It could be that if you tell him the mower is in the shop and have someone do the yard he might be ok with it, assuming the trigger that gets him out to fiddle with the mower is him being able to see that the yard needs mowing. Another thing would be to remove the spark plug and gas from the mower and other devices, and lock up any pesticides, etc.