Question... 73 year old mother with lbd ( she is in major denial). She does not think she has a problem. To her all the people she talks with mainly one, my dads mistress. She is a ghost. These people are totally real to her! which we understand completely why and what is happening to her though she doesn't. Main problem is .. is that she has meds that the doctor has given her she refuses to take them. why.. because she doesn't think she has a problem. I have thought about crushing them up and putting them in her food. Problem number 2 is that she fixes her own meals and if my dad started cooking and she realized that we are putting pills in her food she would think dad is trying to get rid of her to spend the rest of his life with the "other woman". Her blood pressure got so high the other day because of the situation that she is living that she was hospitalized. Im scared for her health and the welfare of my fathers health. How do I get her to understand that taking her meds is so very important?

Lynda,

Reasoning with a demented person won't work. So you'll have to figure out another way. Can you hire a cook? Or a caregiver that can slip meds into snacks? Can you lie, and tell her that the Exelon patch is to keep her skin beautiful?

You might find some useful ideas here:
http://alzlibrary.wordpress.com/2009/07 ... -medicine/

And you might find some useful ideas from the short article on anosognosia from this post:
http://community.lbda.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1914

Finally, you can do a search of past posts on the topic of "refusing to take medication" as this has come up before and there may be good ideas raised by others in the past.

Robin

Lynda - you really have your work cut out for you! How about if someone makes her a fruit smoothie or milk shake every day and put her meds in that? Would that be a possibility? Can you or your dad tell her the meds are vitamins and put them in different containers?
My dad is back to thinking he is going to get well and told his caregivers that he will be well enough to go home in a few weeks! Denial is such a strong coping mechanism, isn't it? Lynn

Lynn... that is a super Idea.. yet someone going by the house everyday.. she would catch on.. not alot of people just stop by to say hi.. and well.. dad is the bad guy right now..so I might try it.. ! Thanks