My mom has dementia and lives alone. I am currently working with a nursing home and an elderly care attorney, to get her into a memory care facility but she is driving me crazy. She calls every 2-5 minutes on my home phone and always says the same thing. No one else can get in touch with me on that line. I have had to call her doctor, dentist, attorney, my employer and several others to ask them to call my cell phone (my mom does not have that number).
I've asked her several times to stop calling so much, and she says "okay", then waits about 15 minutes before calling again! I leave my answering machine on, but it quickly fills up. I am being forced to take the phone off the hook, but I don't like to do that, in case there is a real emergency. I work from home and I am afraid that I will lose my job, because I am falling behind. I have a work phone but my customers can hear my home phone ringing off the hook and wonder if I am too distracted to help them.
I am currently taking an anti-depression medication but it does absolutely nothing for the anxiety I go through every day. Any suggestions?
Since your Mom does this and lives alone, you can't take the telephone away from her in case she needs to call 911 for an emergency.
If Mom calls during a certain time of day, try to get her interested in something else, like a soap opera, or a favorite TV show that comes on daily. You can tell her, oh Mom your favorite show is now on.
Only other thing is for Mom to have a Caregiver until you can move Mom into Memory Care. The Caregiver could pretend to pickup the phone to call you and tell Mom your voice mails says you are out for the day.... let's call back later. Then the Caregiver can distract your Mom.