Miss X's Story
Published on 14 May 2024 10:23 AM
The Circumstances:
A lady aged 90 lives alone in a two-story house. She can move around her house but is frail and unstable. She has no downstairs bathroom. Her only surviving relative is her niece who lives a couple of hours drive away.
Her neighbours do not involve themselves in her life so the only visits she receives are personal care calls 3 mornings a week. She was referred to us by the Independent Living Service, as they had identified a need for some regular company.
Our assessment revealed the lady was experiencing short term memory loss. She also had some fixations around certain problems – for example she had been collecting plastic bottle tops and wanted to donate them to charity but didn’t know how to go about doing so and this had become an obsessive concern to her.
She had recently reported to the police an intruder in her house. Someone had entered via her unlocked back door during the afternoon when she was having a nap in her armchair. She had awoken to see someone in her porch, rifling through her handbag. Naturally she was very distressed about this.
What we did:
• Introduced a Sharing Time service volunteer. They enjoyed talking about their travels and playing scrabble.
• Our Cambridgeshire Handyperson service carried out a free Personal Assessment, Home Safety Check and identified a need for more grab rails in her bathroom and secured a loose stair banister.
• We made a referral to the Cambridgeshire Bobby Scheme, who visited her home and made improvements to the home security, giving reassurance so she felt safer.
• Our research couldn’t find anywhere collecting bottle tops, but a local primary school was happy to have them for craft activities, which pleased her
• The lady was supported to contact her GP about her memory loss and a referral back to the Independent Living services was made, highlighting concerns around her cognitive health and need for more professional input to
live independently safely.
Outcome:
• The lady feels less lonely thanks to the visits from her volunteer. She enjoys conversation and having someone to talk to about her worries and someone who can give reassurance. A regular visit from a volunteer was invaluable because it was over time that we were able to create a much clearer picture of her mental wellbeing and overall needs.
• We reduced risk of falls and helped the lady to move around her house more safely. Hopefully, it will also have helped her to stay living at home longer.
• Fear and anxiety reduced, as Cambridgeshire Bobby Scheme made her home safer to protect her from further break ins.
• Encouraging the lady to talk to her GP about her memory loss made sure she received medical support