Hello,
Both parents have dementia and were not coping at home so I involved Social Services.
It came to a crisis point where mum could no longer live with dad, (situation was abusive) and as her needs were higher then dad's I had to find a care home placement for mum.
I had been looking for a place for months, and had been placed on a couple of waiting lists but I had no idea how the funding worked. I did mention this at meetings with social services but it seemed to go over their heads and I got no advice.
Within a day of another crisis situation at home, a place came up at my first choice of care home which is within a mile of my home and dad's home.
Within a couple of days, we were scheduled to have meeting with mental health and social services regarding the best way forward. It was decided by all that a care placement was the ONLY option, so it went ahead.
Months prior to all of this I had rang Social Services twice and asked for a needs assessment. They asked me if mum had consented to this request, which she had and I explained I also had POA. Nothing happened. No assessment took place to my knowledge.
No one carried out a financial assessment, just took my word that mum qualified for social services support.
Now I've realised that the top up fee being requested, for standard care, should not be requested because no one did a needs assessment, no one gave me a budget, no one gave me a list of homes within the budget which had vacancies and most importantly could meet mums needs.
Nearly all of the other home I checked out charged higher prices than the one I chose.
Where do I stand in all this? Can I challenge the top up? Complain about the lack of input from professionals? Has anyone got any advice please? Thank you
Both parents have dementia and were not coping at home so I involved Social Services.
It came to a crisis point where mum could no longer live with dad, (situation was abusive) and as her needs were higher then dad's I had to find a care home placement for mum.
I had been looking for a place for months, and had been placed on a couple of waiting lists but I had no idea how the funding worked. I did mention this at meetings with social services but it seemed to go over their heads and I got no advice.
Within a day of another crisis situation at home, a place came up at my first choice of care home which is within a mile of my home and dad's home.
Within a couple of days, we were scheduled to have meeting with mental health and social services regarding the best way forward. It was decided by all that a care placement was the ONLY option, so it went ahead.
Months prior to all of this I had rang Social Services twice and asked for a needs assessment. They asked me if mum had consented to this request, which she had and I explained I also had POA. Nothing happened. No assessment took place to my knowledge.
No one carried out a financial assessment, just took my word that mum qualified for social services support.
Now I've realised that the top up fee being requested, for standard care, should not be requested because no one did a needs assessment, no one gave me a budget, no one gave me a list of homes within the budget which had vacancies and most importantly could meet mums needs.
Nearly all of the other home I checked out charged higher prices than the one I chose.
Where do I stand in all this? Can I challenge the top up? Complain about the lack of input from professionals? Has anyone got any advice please? Thank you
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