SLUMS and swimming

Yesterday, an occupational therapist from Providence Home Health came to do a cognitive exam on Leola. It's the St. Louis University Mental Status exam (SLUMS) and it is widely used. It consists of a series of simple questions and tasks, e.g. What day of the week is this?, What year is this? Name as many animals as you can in one minute., etc. It is scored from 1-30. If your score is 27-30, you are normal (no impairment), if your score is 21-26, you have mild neurocognitive disorder, if your score is 1-20 you have dementia. Leola's score was 5. Needless to say, both of us were stunned. Having had no experience with these tests, we didn't realize how impaired she is. Another screening test the O.T. did was the Allen Cognitive Levels Screening. The results indicated Leola was right on the borderline of needing 24-hour supervised care. I think she is getting that care now that she lives with us, but she can still be left alone for parts of the day without danger, as long as she is locked in. Tomorrow the social worker from PHH will come to do her evaluation.

Taking Leola swimming is not something I'm willing to do. Jon has hired a companion to take her swimming twice a week, beginning next Tuesday. This will also take care of the bathing issue. Last week when Jon took her swimming, as he so often has in the past, she couldn't quite handle the locker room alone, forgetting where she put her clothes and glasses. She took almost an hour to get ready to swim. She found her clothes, but not her glasses. They wound up in another swimmer's locker who kindly turned them in to the front desk.