Having a job, a sense of purpose, is a basic human need, and it crops up a lot in persons living with dementia when they lose it, either through loss of ability or loss of familiar routine.   I'm guessing that your husband, when he lived at home, was busy in his office a lot.  I'm also guessing that during the last several months, as his cognitive abilities declined, he still puttered around in his office, but probably didn't accomplish as much work as he used to.  We see this a lot in the earlier stages of the disease:  Mom might "be in the kitchen" but no food was actually being prepared.  She'd have the washing machine running, but there wouldn't be anything in it.  Old habits die hard, and these were habits of a lifetime that don't completely go away simply because the person has dementia.

So as the person is losing more and more of his thinking skills, his emotional needs loom large.  These are what we always want to try to address....we want to "scratch his itch."  So with that in mind, let's look at your husband's request:  by wanting to go "check his office," what NEED is he expressing?  What is his "itch?" -- The need to be busy, productive, to have a purpose.  He feels like he should be doing something constructive. Telling him, "Don't worry, there's nothing there you need to do" wouldn't be of much help.  It wouldn't "scratch his itch."  Taking him home and letting him spend time in his office might provide a temporary solution, but when he gets back to the facility he faces the same problem, so it's likely that he'd make the same request the next day, and the next.  But what would be some other ways you could address that need - scratch that itch -  without taking him home?

One of the easiest solutions is to bring some of his office materials to him at the facility.  If he used a briefcase, bring them in that.  If he used file folders, bring some of those.   We had a daughter whose father attended an adult day program, and would be worried every morning when he arrived about "his papers."   It often resulted in a tussle to get him to go in.  So she found one of his old briefcases, put in some old bank statements and official-looking documents, and kept it in the car.  When he got out of the car at the center, she would hand him his briefcase so he could carry it in with him.  The staff told her that he once he was in and settled, he never asked for it, but it was enough to have it to carry in from the car.  It scratched his itch.

Include some unopened mail if possible.  Look around his office and see what's there that you can bring that you don't need to have back (nothing important!), or make copies of things that you don't want to lose. Bring anything that you thing will be of interest:  photos, memorabilia, whatever resonates with him.  Don't overwhelm him, bring only a few items at a time.

Next, just handing him the items probably won't be enough.  You'll need to engage with him.  "Here's your mail from yesterday.  Why don't we open it?"  or "Here's that statement/letter/article you had asked me to bring (even if he didn't).  Or "Can you help me with some of these papers?  I don't know which ones to keep." See if he will sort through them.  Now keep in mind, this doesn't have to make sense to you, only to him.  If you say "sort" and then try to put restrictions on it ("No, that's from the bank, that goes in this pile"), he might just get frustrated.  Don't assume he can comprehend the content or category of each item.  Let him decide how the job should be done.  The goal isn't to actually sort through the papers; the goal is to keep him engaged and to scratch his itch about needing to be busy.  It may just be enough for him to have them to carry around. One caregiver was trying to engage his father, a former bridge champion.  Trying to play an entire round was frustrating, so instead the son would deal out the four hands, then ask his father to count the points in each hand.  Sometimes Dad would even "start the bidding," and they might suggest how the partner would answer. That was enough.  But it scratched Dad's itch.

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