Looking for some suggestions for when care giver has an emergency
Hi, my father was diagnosed with dementia in 2018; they're more confident now that it's specifically Alzheimer's (his father had it and died before I was born, but my dad has already outlived his dad), though his neuropsych said he is like the poster child for the medication he's taking since they expected to see a lot more decline in certain areas after this long. 😅 Very thankful that the medication has helped him so much with slowing down the progression.
My mother is his main care giver, but mostly my dad still lives pretty independently. He can still drive to places he's very familiar with (though he no longer has a car so he's really only driving when my mom is with him), he stays active physically and mentally. He still has problems with memory of course, many times forgetting to take his medication or forgetting to reorder it, so my mom finally agreed last year to take over managing and administering his pills every day. She will also go with him to doctor appointments. But overall, he has a good routine going and is doing pretty well.
We're in the US and I live several states away from my parents and my sister also lives out of state, about 45-60 minutes away. My mother recently had appendicitis and was admitted to the hospital for a couple days (she's okay and went home already). My dad went with her to the hospital, but didn't want to drive home in the dark after she was admitted (good), so my sister picked him up from the hospital around midnight to take him home and make sure he got his meds. She also stayed in the area for a few days to make sure he continued getting his meds while my mom was in the hospital for the next two days.
My mom doesn't seem to have friends she can ask/trust to help in this type of emergency situation though, but I don't think my sister should be the *only* semi-local person she relies on to jump in and help in an emergency either. I'm sure there must be many other people in a similar situation though (no family/friends to help). It's not like my dad needs a lot of assistance at this point though, it's mostly just to make sure he takes his meds correctly if my mom isn't there. We've tried alarms and such in the past, but he won't use them. He often forgets to turn on his cell phone (he turns it off a lot), so using his phone alarm is pointless too. My sister even got him a watch for Christmas years ago, but he wouldn't wear it.
So, I'm wondering what do other people do in these types of situations if the primary care giver has a medical emergency, but the person with dementia isn't needing a ton of assistance yet? Any suggestions? One person told me to look up Visiting Angels and there is a location near my parents, but I called them today and they don't offer services in only an emergency situation basis and wouldn't even do just medication management anyway (4 hour minimum requirement). So, any other suggestions? Thank you in advance!