Safer house

[Dancedintherain]

PS locking doors (apologies to Albert BUT) .....pleased that one didn't get past the post. legal implications...vulnerable adult, one would risk being accused of abuse.

[jenny lucas]

Yes, Danced raises the very pertinent issue of DOLS (Deprivation of Liberty), which even care homes have to be cautious about.

The trouble is, in practical everyday life, one can see that (temporarily) locking a vulnerable 'likely-to-wander' person in a house/room could really be very 'sensible'. It's a question of risk management, and what is practical.

But it's legally tricky for all that.

Just thinking, but if your uncle wants to 'keep an ear out' for his wife while he is elsewhere in the house, good old baby monitors might do the job?? Or some kind of simple door beepers that sound if doors are opened? Care homes use alarmed pressure pad mats a lot. In my MIL's care home every resident has one by their bed, so that if they get out of bed in the middle of the night it beeps so that staff can come and check what's happening.

As for any 'deprivation of liberty' risk, surely if the front and back doors are kept 'normally locked' and the key 'theoretically accessible' (eg, in a nearby drawer, cupboard that actually someone with dementia is unlikely to search) that would do? After all, most of us keep our doors to the external world permanently locked don't we while we're in the house? (Well, I do!)

PS Nice to see you on the forum again Danced! You'd gone very quiet!

[Ellen_1703]

Hi Dancedintherain and Jenny Lucas. Thank you for your message. I've never really thought of baby monitors. So that's a good suggestion. Of what I believe she is in stage 6 or 7. As in 'on her feet' she shuffles through the house. She is not going fast or properly walking but she can still move. Hope that cleared it up. All I care about is to help them and gather advice on how to that best.

[jenny lucas]

A friend recommended a baby monitor to me when my husband had end stage cancer - it meant I could go downstairs, eg, to cook a meal, but know that I could pick up any sounds he made from his bedroom. Gave me a bit of peace of mind at a time when peace of mind wasn't possible about anything else at all.

That said, the monitor I used was my son's ancient but still working one. It was very simple - just plugged the microphone bit into the wall socket in the bedroom, and the player bit into the wall socket of whatever room I was in (the sound travelled via the house electricity wires so I believe!). You couldn't 'talk back' however.

These days, though, I fear they probably are all very complicated and need to work via the computer!

All the best with it if it does help!