Dementia Assessment for an individual termed 'Palliative'

Specific disabilities and conditions
1

I think my father has rapid onset of dementia (?)

He is very forgetful in the present moment now. His sleeping pattern is disturbed. He largely sleeps between 11am and 6pm and then becomes ‘active’ between 6pm and 10pm when he settles into bed, and then he is increasingly ‘active’ and unsettled during the night. I say ‘active’ - what I mean is his brain is possibly active, as he is wheelchair bound, he cannot walk, but he asks to be moved from room to room, bed to chair, chair to bed, bed to chair, chair to bed and so on, all through the night.

As a carer, it is exhausting, but I believe it may all be due to dementia, rather than any pain from the cancer which he has (?)

If it was pain related, I believe we would see the patterns of the evening/night also happen through the day (?)

The problem I have, is that his and my GP is refusing to provide a Dementia Assessment referral. Is this legal? If a carer suspects the cared-for has some sort of rapidly onsetting memory problems, can the GP refuse just because the cared-for (my father) is termed as ‘Palliative’? I have raised the concern about four times, and each time it is brushed over, instead the conversation is brought back to pain, sickness, typical cancer symptoms etc, which I think are relative stable for now (thankfully) in my father.

Can anyone help or advise please?

Thank you.

2

When my dad was dying of cancer, it affected his mental abilities. - he was a research scientist. I’m wondering if your dad’s behaviour is another symptom?
Sadly, it’s time for you to Google Signs of dying, you will find some easy to read articles which will help you manage dad in the next few months.

3

Without a proper diagnosis it is difficult to pinpoint what may be causing the problem. When Dementia has been diagnosed behaviours like this can sometimes come under the term ‘sundowning’. You can read it about it on this link

Info about getting a diagnosis - covers several pages

Any GP should be listening to you and doing an assessment. It may turn out not to be dementia but how can treatment etc take place, professional input from mental health teams be requested, if dementia not assessed for.

Do you have a social worker? Not every family wants their involvement but you and your dad entitled to assessments in your own right too. Wont overload you with further links till you have read ones posted above.

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