Wandering with a purpose?

Betzzzzz

My mom has Alzheimers and has a little dog. She lives alone (with the dog) although she shouldn't. She refuses to move. Anyhow, last night she was found wandering around her mobile home park looking for her "second dog." She somehow thought that she had two dogs and lost one of them. When a eighbor found mom and walked her back home, they went inside and the lady told her "here is your dog." My mom insisted that she was missing another dog. They called me and I talked to her. I convinced her that she only owned one dog and that she was confused.

When folks start wandering, are they generally looking for something? Wandering with a purpose so to speak. This is new.

This happened in the evening. Is it part of sundowners?

towhee

Hello, welcome to posting, glad you reached out.

You can consider it part of sundowners, but wandering can also happen early in the day. They might have a purpose, but it is not going to make much sense to us, nor can we really use that knowledge to predict behavior. Since this is new, she needs to be checked out medically. I know you know that this is dangerous, truly, hard as it might be, she can no longer live alone.

MN Chickadee

Welcome, and sorry you have to be here. A person with dementia (PWD) can and will wander at any time of the day, but yes it could be worse with sundowners. The purpose doesn't matter and it may change. Sometimes it may be somewhat grounded in reality and sometimes not. This is your warning shot off the bow. She can't live alone. It turned out ok this time but may not next time. Many, many people with dementia meet terrible fates from wandering. At best a neighbor may call adult protective services out of concern for her well being and then you will really have a mess on your hands. And if her judgement is clouded enough to wander looking for a nonexistent dog it usually means there are other safety issues in the home; the wandering is but one symptom of her inability to take care of herself. Most of our PWDs do not go into care willingly, we have to finesse the situation and use fibs and call it temporary for rehab or say there is a problem at the house so you'll stay here for a few months or whatever works. I would get a plan rolling immediately to get her full time supervision.