How to Respond to False Accusations from  someone who has Alzheimer’s–

More often than you think, a person with Alzheimer’s Dementia may falsely accuse a caregiver, family or friend. They might make accusations of abuse or persecution at the hands of a caregiver or nursing home. To be sure, all accusations should be investigated to verify the truth of the matter.

The person with Alzheimer’s does not invent stories from malice. But more often than not, the person with Alzheimer’s is mistaken in their reasoning.

Accusations of theft by the Person with Alzheimer’s 

It’s more likely that the person  with Alzheimer’s misplaced their own property. My Mom seldom put things away in the same place twice because she couldn’t remember where to put them.

When she folded clothes or cleaned house, she couldn’t remember where things belonged. Hence, household items were seldom returned to the same place twice, drawers and cabinets became a hodge-podge of various items.

When visiting Mom, I was as likely to find a can of coffee in the bathroom cabinet as a roll of toilet paper under the kitchen sink.  She no longer remembered her own filing system. Her brain no longer formed appropriate Associations of  : Things to Places –

Short story:

I can remember being in Mom’s home, (before Alzheimer’s diagnosis) preparing soup for our lunch. When I asked Mom to get the crackers, her eyes went blank. I assumed it was one of those “senior moments,” (I’ve had a few of those myself).

She was caught off guard. But– she never remembered where the crackers were stored and it took both of us searching for an half-hour before we finally found the crackers in a shelf over the entertainment center. I can still remember the oddity of that moment, but still convinced myself it was only mom’s age playing tricks on her.

It would be much much later before I realized something was seriously wrong.

Since the Caregiver is most familiar to the person with Alzheimer’s, and sometimes the only one at hand, they most surely are the one who stole the missing item. There is no rationale to this reasoning, but due to damage to the brain by the build-up of plaque, the person with Alzheimer’s can no longer reach a reasonable conclusion. They simply can not.

Without short-term memory, the person with Alzheimer’s lives in the moment — all the moments of memory that went before this one moment are gone!  Without memory of all those moments, they won’t remember that they misplaced the item themselves, they won’t remember all the caregiver does in a single day’s time to support and help and care for them.

All they know is this one moment: their item is missing and the caregiver is present, she must have taken it. A flawed deduction but the only one that the person with Alzheimer’s is able to make.

Without memory of past moments, it’s easy to understand why folks with Alzheimer’s remain in a state of confusion for most of the time.

Without past memories, they also forget that they are no longer able to drive, or handle their finances, or babysit their grandchildren, or know when to take their medicine, or live alone, etc.

Their reasoning about these losses is as flawed as their reasoning about their missing items. The person with mid-to-late stage Alzheimer’s feels as though things, people and places are being stolen away from them. Therefore, they assume the caregiver won’t let them go home, find their mother, drive their car, or spend time alone with their grandchildren, etc.

Since the Caregiver is in-control, to the Alzheimer patient’s way of reasoning, the caregiver is “at fault.”

A few Books for more insight about the person with dementia

How to Respond to the Accusations

These accusations are so personal and hurtful, the first thing we feel is emotional pain and the need to defend. The temptation is to strike back in an angry tone and let the patient know that they probably misplaced any lost items themselves. Yet, that would be a futile response.

No matter how well your reasoning sounds, they will not see your point of view. The  plaque has damaged their brain so that  their reasoning is flawed. No matter how often you try to explain the fact of the matter to an Alzheimer’s patient, they will not understand. They can’t help it. Most likely, if you confront the Alzheimer’s Patient in an angry or upset mood, they may well become angry and belligerent. To their reasoning,  any confrontation is an attack against their person and they may become violent.

In most cases, I suggest that you agree with the Alzheimer’s patient at all cost. When my Mom would cry to go home and see her mother, I would say, “We’ll do it tomorrow.”

In the case of false accusations, you can not agree or pretend to go along with the patient’s accusations. To confront or argue could present a volatile situation, while agreeing would defame someone falsely. Instead,  you do need to be sympathetic to their loss and perhaps persuade them to search for the item with your assistance, which is generally found where the patient misplaced it.  With an arm around the patient you might suggest, “Oh my, your purse is missing? Let’s see if we can find it.”

Often the Alzheimer’s or Dementia sufferer makes the same erroneous accusations because items have been removed from their possession for their own safety; car keys, curling iron, medications, power tools, weapons, etc.

The first thing to understand is that this suspicious or paranoid behavior can not be controlled by the person with Alzheimer’s. It is totally out of their control.  Their reasoning is flawed due to brain damage and they aren’t able to think any other way. Every minute is a new minute and they have no past behavior as a reference to judge any incident.

With a little ingenuity, there is always a safe way to handle each new accusation.

When my mom accused me of stealing her money, (this is a common accusation from an Alzheimer’s sufferer):

I retrieved several old bank statements, blacked-out all personal information and identifying account numbers and folded them into her purse. Mom carried her purse on her arm and would sit and go through each item stored in her purse methodically throughout the day. Within weeks those bank statements were soft as cotton from constant handling, but it was reassuring for Mom to check her money at a glance. And all accusations that I was stealing money from her stopped. My brothers thought it was quite ingenious.

Thankfully, my brothers were totally supportive of all my actions. We sat down to a family meeting as soon as Mom was diagnosed. Together, we went over bank statements, monthly bills, assets and liabilities. By making many decisions early-on, there were few problems later. If she was billed for a large expenditure such as an hospitalization, or yearly property tax, etc., I simply emailed  to let my brothers know.

Often, it is more difficult for those family members who don’t see the patient on a regular basis. When hearing any  accusations for the first time, they may not understand Alzheimer’s disease and it’s detrimental affect on the person with dementia.  Perhaps, a kind way to help them is to offer a gift of knowledge. Offer them a book about Alzheimer’s, that explains all the puzzling behavior that you’ve learned to cope with every day.

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