Psych evaluation – unintended consequences?

Are you thinking that if she IS diagnosed with dementia that you and/or she will be able to keep her condition a secret?
A large portion of my professional life was spent in a therapeutic field, and believe me, KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.
If she is tested, she will have confidentiality rights, and will be able to exercise her own judgment as to what she chooses to share with whom.

Funny story on myself, I am totally incapable of repeating strings of numbers or random letters backwards, from memory. I would have been failing that portion of cognitive testing years ago.

Clinical Psychologists most certainly DO make diagnoses within their scope of practice.

If you don't evaluate your memory at the beginning, how will you know if the program is working?

In any case, an assessment is not a diagnosis. The clinical psychologist will take various measurements of various types of cognitive function; but as to the cause of any present conditions - the cause of any apparent problem could be something as simple as your mother's not paying attention or needing the loo. This is NOT going to lead to her losing her driving licence or being forced into memory care; but - doesn't sound like it, but - it could flag up things to keep an eye on. How would that hurt?

By all means check the program's data protection credentials if you're still worried. I personally wouldn't be any more worried about this than I would be about doing a quiz in Good Housekeeping to see if my marriage will last.

A clinical psychologist is not a physician but rather a PhD. They are part of the clinical treatment team but do not practice medicine and do not diagnose.

Independent living places are unlikely to remove well-behaving residents. My FIL also lives in an independent living community and has mild dementia. He keeps to himself most of the day but participates in exercise classes and meals. He has no behavioral issues that make him a risk to have live there.

Check the lease - the language is probably pretty vague - and until something actually happens I would not worry about it. Our plan for my FIL is for him to continue living there unless he needs to move to the memory care building.

My mom's concern when we went for testing was " well, if they tell me I'm crazy, I'm going to argue with them".

Can your mother elucidate what her hesitancy is?

For us, as a family, it was a valuable experience. It got my brother to quit saying that mom's anxiety was just her having a pity party. It validated the fact that there was cognitive loss.

I do not believe that Mild Cognitive Impairment means that you cant drive anymore. My mother had given up driving at the point where she was tested, so it was a moot point.

Can you discuss with the psychologist, prior to the testing session, if s/he would be mandated to report your mother to DMV if there were a certain level of impairment demonstrated on the testing?

I believe this varies from state to state.

You or she can decline to be tested right now. Unless you have serious concerns, she can just wait. They are mandated reporters for the DMV but I’m not sure how it could be used against her otherwise. We went in to get a baseline and I was shocked that my husband was diagnosed with mild dementia.

TXgirl, does she live in a place that has stipulations in her lease that concerns you?

I can't imagine that she would have to move based on tests. I think that behavior and needs would drive that action.

She can not be deemed incompetent without a hearing and a judge would be the only one that could label her as incompetent. Of course they rely on Doctors and test results, behavior and other things to make this determination. It is a BIG deal, people lose their rights with that determination and it is not easy to get.

I can understand your hesitation with all the potential problems involved with mental health diagnosis. We live in a time that costs you some rights and you never know where it will go.

I hope she is okay and you find help for her without having to subject her to more unpleasantness.

I'm assuming that your mom will be administered a standardized IQ test (not readily available on the internet and you can't preview the actual test due to test security measures) as well as some standardized tests of memeory, reasoning and neurological functioning.

My mom had this sort of evaluation; in the "debriefing" several weeks later, the neurologist who was part of the team gently told my mother that she should no longer be living alone ( she had already moved to an Independent Living facility, so it confirmed that that had been a good idea) and made several other recomme rations for lifestyle changes. She was diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment; no scores were ever divulged, to her or to us.

We found it very useful and actionable information. Is your mother currently living alone?

My suggestion would be to ask the psychologist which tests (what are the names of the tests) she/he wants to administer. Psych tests are standardised tools readily available and often you can find them on the internet. If not available on the internet you could ask to view the tests. That way you can check the purpose and content to see whether you are comfortable it being administered to your mom. Alternatively you could ask the psychologist to explain the content and purpose of the testing. I'm assuming they're wanting to know her capacity to devise a program to match her needs.

I don't think it can hurt, but I'm not sure it can help either. According to what I've read, a paper published in the Journal of Neuroscience found no evidence that playing brain games, specifically Lumosity, translated into improvements in cognitive functioning or decision making. Your mom may be better off doing crossword puzzles or other word games in general to keep her mind active.

What concerns me about test scores is that she may feel badly if her score isn't as high as others.....leading her to feel badly about herself possibly, you know? Other than that, I don't think these games are designed to diagnose dementia or to threaten her living independently. It's probably more of a money making venture combined with a fun/social activity designed to improve oneself.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck!