I hear that a lot. The lack of insight into their own disease process diminishes along with other skills. It can be INCREDIBLY frustrating when you're watching the decline and they think they can drive their car, go back to work, climb Mt Everest, or what ever strikes their fancy. Sometimes when dealing with this, I find ways to skirt around it and other times I've found ways to highlight the change without being threatening or mean. For example, I had a person who stated he could still drive. We were working on some other skills at the time and I asked him to identify some colors for me. Pointing out that he could not differentiate between red (stop) and green (go) made a bigger impact (at least at the time) than if I simply said "you can't drive". Good luck! You're doing a great job (even when you're pretty sure you're not)!
My mum is happy to acknowledge she has Alzheimers but is adamant that it isnt dementia and isnt progressive in its decline.
I hear that a lot. The lack of insight into their own disease process diminishes along with other skills. It can be INCREDIBLY frustrating when you're watching the decline and they think they can drive their car, go back to work, climb Mt Everest, or what ever strikes their fancy. Sometimes when dealing with this, I find ways to skirt around it and other times I've found ways to highlight the change without being threatening or mean. For example, I had a person who stated he could still drive. We were working on some other skills at the time and I asked him to identify some colors for me. Pointing out that he could not differentiate between red (stop) and green (go) made a bigger impact (at least at the time) than if I simply said "you can't drive". Good luck! You're doing a great job (even when you're pretty sure you're not)!