How would you handle this?
My mom is 92, in a NH and has aphasia from a stroke. Some days she's fairly fluent, other days, a word or phrase is all that comes out. So I visit today and she says "I want to talk to you" gesturing that we should go out of her room. So I take her to the parlor and she manages to get out "they've all turned against me ", something about "the girls", something about someone who works upstairs and finally, "something is different". She was rather upset telling me all this, but at the end she said "I feel so much better". She's clearly unbidden ed herself, but to her clueless daughter! Anyone have any good ideas?
My mom has vascular dementia and was somewhat paranoid right after the stroke, but has been fairly stable mentally and emotionally for the last year or so.
I recall when my aunt was in a facility and was so unhappy because her possessions were being stolen. She was lucid, there was no question that she was imagining things. Stuff happens - all residents aren't reliable.
When my mother was in a SNF the first time, another woman was brought in post-stroke. When she was able to recover enough to speak, she told us she used to ride with a motorcycle gang. She used that term.
That revelation made me stop and think - who knows what the backgrounds are of the other residents? (And we kept Mom away from the former motorcycle mama.)
If there is a pattern of increasing paranoia then I think you need to talk to her geri-psych about treatment (meds) to help it.
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