Entered respite care on Friday, was found laying next to her bed in the morning so required an ER visit and friend to help her the entire day. Was fine when friend left around 5:00.
Receive a call this morning that Aunt is sitting on floor in living room naked from waist down and confused.
Husband is now taking her to see her dr (I am visiting sick son in TN). Aunt feels she is in prison - great 1 bedroom apt with many seniors.
I believe she has dementia and cannot return to her home based on her actions - her home is not suitable for in-home help, very old and suits her fine but not another person.
Seems pretty safe on your part to assume that sitting half naked on the floor in a public area means some sort of altered mental state, and at 99, dementia must be considered.
Ask her present facility if they have a recommendation for a professional who does geriatric cognitive/behavioral assessment, and the results can be assuring to you and ultimately helpful to her.
In a very similar situation, my LO was assessed in her MCU by a gentle soft spoken woman, with me in the room, then suggested small doses of soothing and calming medication, and gave the staff suggestions about managing her acting out and escape attempts.
In fairness to your aunt, adjustment at first takes much longer than a few days, no matter how pleasant her new surroundings are.
In our case, it was a few months before she began to warm to her “hotel”, but ultimately it began to feel much more comfortable to her.
As with your aunt, my LO was a constant fall risk, and could not be kept in the home in which she’d been born 89 years before, even with a full time (live-) in aide.
Hard on her, and possibly even harder on you to have to place her. But in a situation “at home” cannot be made safe, the hard decisions sometimes need to be made more with the mind than the heart.