Re: dealing with demention
My F-I-L recently passed from esophageal cancer (*****, btw, it appears once symptoms hit it’s nearly too late to help) and he left his 56 year old wife for us to care for as she has no (useful) immediate family. She was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s about 5 years ago. She is now at a stage when she can’t reasonably communicate (cannot speak in sentences, mostly incoherent mumblings, cannot read/write, etc.) and is losing her basic faculties (like the bathroom, for a lovely example). She cannot live alone, no question. We went down the home health aide route but it seemed most of the time she was just on the couch, there is only so much interaction that can be maintained in that situation. So we found a very nice facility just down the road that has been excellent for her. She gets around, smiles a lot more, they do activities, she gets attention from other people, all of which has seemed to be very beneficial her, that constant human interaction seems very important. And we are not worried about her hurting herself or ‘getting loose’ anymore. Very sad, she was a very smart woman.
To the OP I feel your pain, it is tough. I think all you can do is deadbolts and hope that works. I guess you could try locking her bedroom door at night. Besides the obvious fire escape concerns, the other things the locks might do is agitate her to the point she hurts herself.
But as they say..."Great minds think alike" 