I went through everything with my mother who became demented over a period of about 15 years, and in the last three was on a fast downhill track because she could no longer keep a lid on her emotional issues. It's terrible when you have such a struggle to keep someone safe in her home that it's a relief when she has a fall and finally you can have the firemen take her away. She wasn't seriously damaged but there was no going back and she was so hostile to me she couldn't be in my house either. This sort of behavior can ruin a family trying to give care at home, not every demented person is passively slipping into vegetablehood. She wouldn't have hesitated to start fires or knife somone in her paranoia. Truly, God sent an angel in the form of the proprietess of a very small group home who took her in, calmed her down so we could visit again, and kept her going another two years with love and food in spite of undiagnosed and untreated pancreatic cancer. She was so successful she even got my mother praying and listening to the Bible again. I am a great fan of this type of care facility, and not of the bigger establishments at all, the bigger they are the less they can give this sort of care. Hospice services will provide professional help to make regular visits and deal with health issues, even a mobile dentist and xray. Also they provide supplies like Depends and bandages, whether in own home or institutions.