Just returned home feeling very angry following a visit to mum at the care home - the home manager spoke to me tonight to say that they intend to move mum in to a more high needs quarter of the home based on her "nursing care needs".
Mum is 71 with vascular dementia and has been in the home for 7 months now since her knee op in June 14. The home only opened in Apr 14 and up to now they have not segregated residents on the basis of how advanced their dementia is, how mobile they are or on any other basis.
Mum has eventually started to settle reasonably well and enjoys the company and social interaction with 'some' of the other residents. However now the CH want to move mum upstairs as they open up the whole home and start to segregate residents based on needs. ALL of the other residents moving upstairs have virtually zero capacity to communicate or interact socially. If mum were to be moved then she would lose this interaction, which is pretty much all my poor mum has left in her life, and the decline in her mental capability would only speed up i'm sure. The reason they want to move mum is because she is very resistant to personal care, washing & pad-changing etc, but apart from that (which can be contained in her bedroom) she is very calm and is generally an easy person to care for. The CH are saying this is due to her "nursing needs" based on their assessment....but where do you draw the line between nursing needs and normal dementia care needs?? The only nursing they do for mum is administration of tablets.
The reality is that the CH are making things better and more convenient for "THEM", and not taking in to consideration quality of life for MUM. We pay over £50k a year for mum to be looked after and for her quality of life to be maintained as high as possible. We don't pay £50k a year for the CH to make things easier for themselves, to maximise occupancy or improve their margins. Arghh this makes my blood boil!
Right now not sure what to do, as a family we have battled for the past 5 years to look after mum, physically and mentally, and it just makes me so angry that a private home can make this kind of decision so lightly without consideration for my mums quality of life.
Tomorrow I will contact the CQC to get their views but I would really appreciate views from any of you that may have experienced similar situations?
Thanks for reading.
Martin
Mum is 71 with vascular dementia and has been in the home for 7 months now since her knee op in June 14. The home only opened in Apr 14 and up to now they have not segregated residents on the basis of how advanced their dementia is, how mobile they are or on any other basis.
Mum has eventually started to settle reasonably well and enjoys the company and social interaction with 'some' of the other residents. However now the CH want to move mum upstairs as they open up the whole home and start to segregate residents based on needs. ALL of the other residents moving upstairs have virtually zero capacity to communicate or interact socially. If mum were to be moved then she would lose this interaction, which is pretty much all my poor mum has left in her life, and the decline in her mental capability would only speed up i'm sure. The reason they want to move mum is because she is very resistant to personal care, washing & pad-changing etc, but apart from that (which can be contained in her bedroom) she is very calm and is generally an easy person to care for. The CH are saying this is due to her "nursing needs" based on their assessment....but where do you draw the line between nursing needs and normal dementia care needs?? The only nursing they do for mum is administration of tablets.
The reality is that the CH are making things better and more convenient for "THEM", and not taking in to consideration quality of life for MUM. We pay over £50k a year for mum to be looked after and for her quality of life to be maintained as high as possible. We don't pay £50k a year for the CH to make things easier for themselves, to maximise occupancy or improve their margins. Arghh this makes my blood boil!
Right now not sure what to do, as a family we have battled for the past 5 years to look after mum, physically and mentally, and it just makes me so angry that a private home can make this kind of decision so lightly without consideration for my mums quality of life.
Tomorrow I will contact the CQC to get their views but I would really appreciate views from any of you that may have experienced similar situations?
Thanks for reading.
Martin