Mental Health Assessment?

[katie1]

Dad has Vascular Dementia and is in hospital following a collapse three weeks ago. We are going through the NHS CHC funding process and have had the CHC assessment meeting using the DST and are waiting for the outcome. However.....we were then told they would like to do a mental health assessment, that was a week ago. I have asked numerous times who is going to do this assessment, what they are hoping to find out, how they will do the assessment and what difference it will make to the claim for CHC.....but I never get told satisfactory answers and so far no one has been able to tell me when they will be doing this assessment.
Has anyone else been through this process and had to have a mental health assessment?
Is it essential for the CHC?
There was no question about it on the DST form!
I don't want it to delay things!

 

[Pete R]

Mom had a Mental Capacity Act Assessment (if it is same thing) last week. Since I already had POA and she had a formal diagnosis I asked why. This is the reply from the social worker.......(I have changed it slightly to exclude names).

Edit....Just too add this was completed after the CHC assessment decision had been made by the panel so did affect it and was more to do with Mom having to go into permanent care status for funding rather than the temporary status she was on.

"As your Mom meets the two stage diagnostic criteria for a decision specific assessment under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (evidenced by she has a diagnosis of Vascular dementia and the MMSE scores), the local authority are required to complete the assessment to evidence whatever action is being planned to be taken (i.e. permanent care home placement) is in your Mom's Best Interests. This is a statutory part of the application to meet local authority requirements for authorisation and funding for a permanent placement and is considered a reasonable request. Without a formal Mental Capacity Assessment being completed, the law states that your Mom would be assumed to have capacity and would be assumed to make decisions regarding her care.

I would be carrying out the assessment and I assure you that this will not be carried out in a harsh manner, especially within consideration to your Mom's emotional needs. The meeting can be a short chat where I ask some basic questions and record your Mom's responses. It will not be in the form of a memory assessment where she is asked specific questions with “correct” answers. The questions I would ask would be around where she believes she lives and if she understands she needs some help to manage her care needs. If she becomes upset at any point then the assessment will be stopped.

People who are in a permanent care home placement or hospital setting who have been deemed to lack capacity require a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS) to be completed if the person does not have the capacity (which is established within a Mental Capacity Assessment) to agree to that care. A DOLS is completed for people who are considered under “continuous supervision and control”, and a permanent placement could be considered as continuous and a form of control (e.g. lack of being able to access the community independently), also they may not be free to leave. The home complete the DOLS and then it is considered by the local authority, and authorised or not depending on the circumstances."

This satisfied my concerns and was conducted well by the SW.

I hope it helps.

 

[katie1]

Mom had a Mental Capacity Act Assessment (if it is same thing) last week. Since I already had POA and she had a formal diagnosis I asked why. This is the reply from the social worker.......(I have changed it slightly to exclude names).

Edit....Just too add this was completed after the CHC assessment decision had been made by the panel so did affect it and was more to do with Mom having to go into permanent care status for funding rather than the temporary status she was on.

"As your Mom meets the two stage diagnostic criteria for a decision specific assessment under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (evidenced by she has a diagnosis of Vascular dementia and the MMSE scores), the local authority are required to complete the assessment to evidence whatever action is being planned to be taken (i.e. permanent care home placement) is in your Mom's Best Interests. This is a statutory part of the application to meet local authority requirements for authorisation and funding for a permanent placement and is considered a reasonable request. Without a formal Mental Capacity Assessment being completed, the law states that your Mom would be assumed to have capacity and would be assumed to make decisions regarding her care.

I would be carrying out the assessment and I assure you that this will not be carried out in a harsh manner, especially within consideration to your Mom's emotional needs. The meeting can be a short chat where I ask some basic questions and record your Mom's responses. It will not be in the form of a memory assessment where she is asked specific questions with “correct” answers. The questions I would ask would be around where she believes she lives and if she understands she needs some help to manage her care needs. If she becomes upset at any point then the assessment will be stopped.

People who are in a permanent care home placement or hospital setting who have been deemed to lack capacity require a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS) to be completed if the person does not have the capacity (which is established within a Mental Capacity Assessment) to agree to that care. A DOLS is completed for people who are considered under “continuous supervision and control”, and a permanent placement could be considered as continuous and a form of control (e.g. lack of being able to access the community independently), also they may not be free to leave. The home complete the DOLS and then it is considered by the local authority, and authorised or not depending on the circumstances."

This satisfied my concerns and was conducted well by the SW.

I hope it helps.

Thank you for that, however My Dad is already subject to a DOLS which is in effect until mid April. I would have thought that it was sufficient as proof of his mental state.
He is deteriorating by the day the longer he is in hospital.

 

[katie1]

Well, I have just been told that the DST will not be submitted until this mental health assessment is completed, and it may not be completed on the ward. I think that if Dad has to leave the ward to go to another department that he could become even more confused and disorientated , hopefully someone familiar will be able to go with him, but I doubt it because they never seem to have enough staff. Its not their fault, Im sure they do their best, but not enough staff are employed!
This all means that everything is on hold until the mental health assessment has been done, then the completed DST can be submitted. By this Thursday Dad will have been in hospital 4 weeks. However there are no beds in Nursing Homes in our area. But he is on a waiting list.(I feel awful, but we are like vultures waiting for someone to pass away in order to vacate a bed, its an awful situation)
I wonder what type of mental health assessment they will do?