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For example, my mom thought she needed to call her bank and initiate the transfer a joint savings account into my nephew's name only. (I thought this idea had been put to rest.....) Of course, the bank nicely sent her the forms which I was lucky to have seen when she opened them. From dealing with a Medicaid spend down for my dad, I know and have confirmed we can't transfer any of her assets in the event she needs to go into a nursing home and needs to eventually go on Medicaid herself. We've discussed this many times, and, of course, she just doesn't remember or understand.

And she continues to call various businesses, her doctor looking for a prescription she has already received, her insurance agent to ask for a short term homeowners policy (??), etc.

So far I have been able to head things off before they go too far down the path, but has anyone else had to deal with this? Hoo boy!

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Not that particular problem, but my mother did call 3 houses at 5AM, trying to find someone to help her get out of bed. She went to the hospital and then, a NH. We didn't give her a phone back for a long time. Unfortunately, you are going to have to take her phone.
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Yes I too think you should remove the phone. My mother (in a NH) used to do this sort of thing - like calling the bank to order cheques. They had my POA on file and refused. She called a hearing aid place, had them come check her out and said she'd ordered them ($4,000!) but she wasn't going to wear them because they wouldn't look nice. I put a stop to that fast.

Since a stroke a few months ago her speech is so slurred that she agreed she didn't need the phone any more as she can use a hallway phone if necessary. With Parkinsons, full blown dementia and in a wheelchair she can barely dial a phone now so hopefully I won't have any more nasty surprises.
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When my husband went through this phase of wanting to call places he was too confused to dial correctly. Sometimes he annoyed someone with a wrong number, but at least he didn't order expensive merchandise or set chaos in motion.

If she does not live alone and assuming someone in the house has a cell phone, removing her phones for a while may be a good approach. You can say they all had to go in for upgrades or new wiring or something.
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Oh, yeah. My mom has a problem with dialing as well. She got disgusted one day recently when she couldn't reach my aunt in another state - "something is wrong with your phone". Um, noooo, you didn't dial the area code, Mom..... :o)

We still need a landline due to our location - we live on a mountainside with bad cell service. Being able to have only cell service would be the solution to this problem. Darn! We could put the battery powered phones away, and figure out something with the non battery phone we still have.

Hmm......
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Omg this is too funny! My mom did this and was calling the emergencey room. You got to laugh or it would make you cry. She is in the NH now, but I swear I used to laugh at some of the stuff she did. However, setting the silliness aside, she did make a mess of some things and I believe was responsible for getting my dad's SS check stole from the government. I would remove the phones if possible.
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Rascal what if you used on cordless phones with multiple base chargers and made sure to never leave a phone where she could get to it. The base plugged into the landline in the wall could be one that never has a phone on it, but you could keep another base with a phone hidden somewhere else in the house only you know about.
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God help me if it comes to this i cant even cope with "siblings calling the phone". i would throw the phone out the window and tell her "theres no phones anymore its all internet!".
I am already having to open her mail as shes sending abusive letters to people she owes money too. God forbid she gets on the phone. Beam me up Scotty.
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