How do I keep my Mom from pulling TV cables and phone cords?

People with your parent's type of mental disorder can and will fixate on one or 2 things. Mom rolled her wheel chair down a flight of stairs and immediately said she didn't do it....My brother has a brain disease and now is in a memory care facilitly. He did the same thing with the cables...He even went outside and disconnected the cords from the outside. Remove phone and TV from her room for a week. Tell her they are at the store for repair....Or, they are scheduled to be re-insstalled in a week..don't give an explanation as to what happened to them. She doesn't need to stress over it. Maybe it stresses her out having them in the room. Give her books, to find word puzzles to picture books. Schedule her to talk to loved ones once a week with your cell phone. She doesn't need a phone in her room...does she? TV and remote controls can be foreign to her now. She doesn't need to watch in her room. Perhaps they have an activites room to watch tv or do art things.

I have no personal experience with this behavior, but look into getting her a fidget box or apron or something. There are lots of options. She also might need some anti-anxiety medicine.

One good website is: store.best-alzheimers-products
Another is: geriguard

You can google for others.

The solution is no more phones or TV's. Mom may have to move to Memory Care where she can't break stuff.

SUM IT UP. KEEP TV & PHONE OUT OF ROOM. She can watch tv in activities room. You can call her relatvies once a week with your cell phone. Things things get too confusing for people, honestly. It's too much. NOw is the time to keep things simple.

The common denominator is a *cord* item. I wonder if she thinks these cords are something else, like snakes, that she feels she needs to remove to keep her and her roommate safe. Experience with a belt [if they are allowed] to see if she removes it. If that is the case, then think of some way to make the cords look like something else.

Early in his dementia I bought a switch cord for my husband's lamp. It plugged into an outlet and the lamp plugged into it. He could easily use the switch (which I hung on the bedpost) without reaching up into the lamp shade. He seemed to love it. Then he started taking it apart, which meant getting on his knees on the floor and doing some awkward reaching.

The third time this happened I caught him in the act, so to speak.
Me: "Dear, I thought you liked that new lamp switch."
Him: "It is wonderful! It used to be so hard to shut the bed lamp off!"
Me: "Why are you taking it off the lamp?"
Him: "Didn't you tell me that you bought it for me?"
Me: "Yes. I bought it so you could use it with the lamp."
Him: (Reasonably) "Well I sure don't want to leave it behind in this motel when we leave!"

Ah. His removal of the cord was related to his delusion we were in a motel. Makes sense if you accept the underlying premise.

MinNJ, I suspect that there is a "reasonable" explanation for your mother's obsession with cords. Maybe she thinks they are snakes. Maybe she thinks little blue men from outer space can eavesdrop through them. Maybe she wants to be sure they go home with her tomorrow. Probably you'll never know what her reasoning is, but somehow it makes sense to her.

Meanwhile, keeping those things out of her room seems wise -- or having replacement cords for the phone, as you've tried. How to keep her roommate's things safe is a bigger concern.

I wonder if it would help if she spent less time in her room. I don't mean have her sit in a wheelchair outside the nurses' station, but see that she goes to most activities. Even if she doesn't sing along or try to cover her bingo card or make valentines to decorate her room, the distraction of being with other residents might be good for her.

Dementia is such a cruel disease! Its unpredictability makes coping with it especially hard. If this nursing home is going a good job with Mom, I'd tend to tackle each foible as it arises. Keep Mom and her roommate safe, right where she is.

My husband, by the way, did not graduate from removing the cord to drinking shampoo or using soap suppositories. This may be the only odd behavior the NH will have to cope with for your Mom. Most NHs have a high proportion of residents with dementia, and if the NH is good they deal with the quirks and unpredictability of that set of diseases well.

This might be a good time for a discussion with the staff. Attend the next scheduled care conference. Ask how the staff feels about their ability to cope with Mom's odd behaviors and under what circumstances they'd recommend a memory-care environment. Not that it is their decision, but it would be useful, I think, to understand their philosophy.

My brother escaped from a memory care unit. They found one a little more secure. He is only 58... Pooor guy, and now I have mom and brother basically the same level of ALZ...They both walk and walk and walk...

I thought nursing homes with dementia wards or memory care units were locked down?

Test your mom's ability to use a phone and a remote control. This will be your answer as to whether or not she needs these items in her room 24 hours, 7 days a week. I don't think so.

You can also buy cord "channels" that disguise the cords, but they'd still have the plug in at the end that would go into the wall. If you google "Wiremold C10 Cordmate Cord Channel, White" you can see what I'm talking about. I'm not sure if it would work on a curly phone cord, but should work on the TV cord OK. You can also google "Command cord clips" which are adhesive clips that you stick to the wall and hold the cord against the wall in place. Maybe that would work for the TV. I'm stumped about the phone cord. Good luck!