Mum has Mild Cognitive Impairment diagnosed earlier this year and she is continuing to decline, she is 83 and lives alone. She is quite anti-social and would happily never leave the house again (has no outside space at all) although I do get her into the car with difficulty every couple of weeks for a journey out for a drive or to a cafe. I have financial POA in place as she wasn’t handling her money very well but health POAnot set up, her choice. She became obsessed with a man much younger than me, he was the son of a pen pal she had known since the 1970’s, she ended up sending him thousands of £’s before I could enact the POA. He was emailing her quite a lot but she has said she no longer has access to money and he no longer emails her (people like him - no polite words).
We speak every morning between 9 and 10, and if she’s a bit later to wake and get up she cries a lot on the phone, great sobs like a child. I have been kindly and gently asking for a long time what if anything is wrong, is she in pain, anything happened etc but she just gasps back ‘I’m alright’ and then starts crying again. I have alerted Dr (I used to work at the surgery and have a good relationship with all there) but when she is face to face in the surgery she bucks up no end and you wouldn’t think there is a problem.
I think she has been depressed for years but my opinion doesn’t really count!
Where do I go with this? She is declining quite a bit, wants to stay at home, doesn’t want carers or a cleaner (and I am not doing those things for her, I have always been there for emergencies but work f/t, am married, and live 45 mins drive away), and says she is not lonely. She doesn’t like people and loathes children (we are not close, but I do worry and care about her). Is there anyone I should contact outside of the GP to alert to her decline? She would be self funding, but this isn’t about money, I just don’t know the systems available and am in limbo.