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!
