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Your profile says she suffers from depression... maybe meds for this is where you start rather than the other symptoms?
People may suggest breaking or crushing the pills to hide in food but many medications are time-released and breaking them destroys this mechanism. Also, crushed meds are incomprehensibly bitter and few, if any, foods can mask that awful taste.
As Geaton confirmed, most meds cannot be crushed or disguised. It would be unwise to attempt sneaking in her meds if mom retains her cognitive autonomy as regards her primary MD and the courts.
You don't provide any info as to DPOA or POA involvement but that person needs to get her to the ER for evaluation; not doing this places her life at risk, depending on the meds required purpoeses. Once evaluated. she'd likely be placed on a 72 hour hold or longer to get her back on her meds and then it's very likely that that the hospital will recommend NH placement.
Your mom has the financing for live in care, it's likely she has the assets to pay for in-facility care while the DPOA works to get her qualified for eventual Medicaid LTC.
Ultimately, someone needs to file for an emergency Guardianship & Conservatorship so that all of mom's needs are met.
It's a very hard thing to shake up her living situation but in all reality, how grounded is she in her current surroundings?
This situation is emergent and if no family member can or will take the necessary measures to ensure her wellbeing, then immediately turn it all over to APS with request for a case mgr.
Wishing you the best in all of this.
Mikoukounas, do you think part of the problem is the sheer number of meds your mother is being asked to take? If so, perhaps you could learn from her physician(s) (if you have POA) whether some meds might be discontinued. Otherwise, you might want to consider consulting a behavioral psychologist (one who could come to her home) to see if the psychologist could plan some strategies to get your mother to take her meds. Again, though, assuming different aides are with your mother at different times when she's supposed to be taking her meds unless all the aides are taught to do the same things, there's still going to be a problem.
What does your mother say about WHY she will not take her medications?
At some point, dependent on the answer as to WHY she won't take meds you may need to discuss with MD. You may be looking at a wish for Hospice and end of life care?
Wishing you the best. Only so much can be done. We cannot force medications down their throats.
If you don't think that you would ever seek curative treatment, the best option I've found is to put her in pallative/hospice care. They have the capability to get drugs in different forms.
For instance, my Mom refuses anything in pudding or applesauce. She started refusing to take any pain pills because she said she already took them. As a result, she was in intense pain and ended up with potential UTI. However, she didn't have enough urine to do a sample because she refused water, juice, etc.
Pallative/Hospice came in, gave her tylenol as a suppository, ordered liquid broad spectrum antibiotics since she had all the symptoms of a UTI, even though, we couldn't get a urine sample and getting blood was extremely hard due to her dehydrated state (although she said she drank plenty of liquids)...and 6 hours later, she bounced back and is back to eating food and drinking and taking her pills. And yes, she hallucinates...claims she was getting married a second time (which was not bad, considering that she remembered that she was previously married once).
My Mom was having trouble swallowing basically anything prior to Hospice/pallative care coming in and lately, it takes a bit to recognize who I am.
One never knows what to expect with dementia....
everything else was a fight .
for a while we tried all kinds of drugs to control her hallucinations which were upsetting to her and me as well (such as the day she thought we were living in North Korea and there were babies crying under the bathroom floor. Though when she thought the people on our tv were actually filming in our house she was very happy)
the drugs actually made her more aggressive and with worse hallucinations- plus she said they made her feel sick and very out of it so she refused to take any.
Ultimately with her doctor we decided to stop the pills- the hallucinations aren’t life threatening and she feels physically less sick without them
i dont know how much real research there is on elderly drug reactions- elderly over 85 not 65, I assume the physical body for those 30 years may change some things so which drug would work best if at all is a question
mayo clinic did some research and found placebos worked much of the time so adding drugs that are not for physical ailments seems like my best best
my mom doesn’t sleep more than an hour at a time day or night. We tried all kinds of sleep aids and sleeping pills from otc to prescription and same reaction- just made things worse or at best benign and no better
At this point the only pills I give are those that control physical health and occasionally pain pills - arguing with her to take pills that make her feel sick at this point does not seem worth the fight
she already feels helpless and without any control over her circumstances
fishes doesn’t sleep that seems to affect me more than her and thankfully my mother put away some money we use for night help
Other than that, there's not much else you CAN do for a demented elder who's decided they no longer want to take meds. Call hospice in for an evaluation to keep her comfortable, especially if mom has other underlying health conditions. The Medicare reason my hospice company used to get mom approved was "Senile Degeneration of the Brain" which is non Alzheimer's dementia. AD has it's own classification.
Best of luck to you.
My mom seemed to draw comfort from some of her hallucinations. She wasn't violent, though sometimes she was afraid. If your mom's behavior isn't endangering her or anyone else, then you need to decide if it's worth fighting that particular battle.