Mom asked if person was a "midget."

Oh, my uncle has said much worse about staff very loudly. I can't even repeat what words were used. I just diverted the topic and try to direct him to another topic. If he persists, I tell him we aren't going to discuss this right now and tell him I forgot something in the car or need to use bathroom and leave for 5 minutes. By the time I get back he has not remembered what the discussion was and we talk about something benign like weather, cars, sports. The sad thing is he was saying these words way before dementia so I am very appalled when he does go off on a rant.

Many of the staff have heard these derogatory remarks (no it isn't right but it is often vocalized with dementia patients). I feel for them since they have to just take those words and keep on working.

Usually diversion works very well due to dementia and the loss of focus on topics.

Well at least she only said it about someone on TV news and not in person, so chalk that one up to "it could have been worse"

If that is your biggest issue with your mom with dementia thank your lucky stars, as many on here wish that was all they had to worry about.

My 99 yo mother would say the same thing and she does not have dementia, in her day that is the verbiage that was used before we started changing the American language.

And? Your mother suffers from dementia/Alzheimer's so using "politically incorrect" verbiage should not come as a surprise. Further, elders of a certain generation didn't use "little people" to describe them but "midgets" was the terminology used in that day.