Post #3870340
2026-07-16 22:28 UTC
@CppGuy@infosec.space
Here in Australia those 'memory tests' are absolutely useless because they are impossible to fail. Doctors will try very hard to not give a dementia diagnosis for an elderly patient. It took nurses to actually recommend placement to get my mother into assisted living and that was because a nurse started looking harder after my mum thought I was her brother and noticed that every time she asked about mum's living arrangement she got a different answer. We finally got a dementia diagnosis after she had to be moved to a secure facility.
Replies (1)
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@CppGuy@infosec.space 2026-07-16 22:44
@Steveg58@aus.social Our experience here in the UK has been similar. We thought he'd get a dementia diagnosis last summer; he didn't, because, even though he couldn't remember where he lived, he could join in with a conversation. They said he had memory loss, rather than dementia. A year later, and significantly less aware now, he's been referred to the memory clinic again. We'll see what they say this time. This relative now lives with us. Once he has a dementia diagnosis, various forms of extra help becomes available to us as his carers. So the Health Service is — let's put this nicely — not motivated to over-diagnose dementia.