My grandparents spent their final years in a retirement community in North Carolina which provided all levels of care, from light-touch living assistance (activities, events, meals, cleaning) to complete nursing home with memory care. As they aged, they moved through each level until they died.
When my grandmother moved into the nursing home, we learned about demential kleptomania: patients would wheel themselves into other’s rooms and take things. It may be worthless clothes or nick-nacks or valuables like jewelry, more just acting on the need to take something.
I was reminded of this when my mother-in-law recently moved into memory care and the family was told to not leave anything of value her. Indeed, my wife has already identified a prime candidate who wheels herself into other’s room, regardless of whom is present, eye’s looking for her next target. Not sure what the goal is but it definitely is a thing.
Perhaps this is a capitalist thing, she-who dies-with-the-most-toys-wins and in their dementia they have a need to acquire stuff. How about non-capitalist societies? Though truly more nuanced that the common understanding, the common belief is that communism doesn’t allow private property, so would demential kleptomania be accepted? Buddhism’s second major precept is about stealing: A disciple of the Buddha must not steal by oneself, encourage others to steal, facilitate stealing, steal with mantras, or involve oneself in the causes, conditions, methods, or karma of stealing … all valuables and possessions, including such objects as small as a needle or a blade of grass. Do patients behave differently when from different backgrounds, or is it truly universal, almost instinctual?
I am not an anthropologist but I would expect there to be other cultural norms that are challenged by dementia, it would be interesting to see how they are handled or explained when someone is not in control of their faculties.
