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I get very frustrated telling him over and over "Sit down." Scared he's going to injure himself when he gets up. I think he must be bored; or else this is part of typical nighttime agitation. But how to deal with it and keep him safe without getting angry at him?

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Has he had a lot of falls? It's kind of inevitable that, at some point, he IS going to fall. Does he walk at all anymore? Can he do exercises/PT to get strong enough to be safer on his feet?

Maybe you could try to take a deep breath and try to calm down a little bit about this. Yes, do what you reasonably can to keep him safe, of course. But life is not without risk so don't drive yourself too crazy with it, if possible. You being frustrated and angry and scared about this is no good for you. It sounds like a lot of stress.

Is there a lap belt in his wheelchair? If he really should not be getting up at all, that might help, as long as you are there to undo it when he does really need to get up.

Good luck.
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Will he tolerate having a sweater or soft jacket put on his arms backwards and buttoned down the back of the wheelchair?

Or even perhaps put the jacket or sweater around the back of the wheelchair and button or zip it in the front?

If this frustrates him, it isn’t fair to him to do it except in very infrequent emergencies, but if he’s just comfortably unable to figure out why he isn’t able to stand up, it may serve as a deterrent for brief periods of time.

Would it work (also temporarily) to push him into a new position every several minutes?
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As scary as it is for you to have him try and walk, it's really best for him that he walks, even if it's for just a little bit. When my husband was becoming unsteady on his feet, falling a lot, and moving slower than a turtle, I was sharing with his neurologist my frustration about him moving so slow and falling a lot, and not wanting to use his transport chair when we went places, and he said that it was much better for my husband to keep walking as long as he could, and that I needed to keep him moving as long as possible. He kept on walking slowly until he ended up in ICU with aspiration pneumonia, where he remained in the hospital for about 3 weeks. After that, he came home completely bedridden, where he remained for the last 22 months of his life. Be careful what you wish for.
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You can't reason with a person suffering from dementia. There is also no way to keep him 100% safe as that's impossible. Make sure he has a walker to use and hope for the best. Restraining him in the wheelchair will only add to his agitation and could worsen the possibility of a fall. Call his doctor for medication for the Sundowning. A mild sedative may work wonders.

Best of luck
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