Thousands of vulnerable people held unlawfully in care homes – report
- Thread starter la lucia
- Start date
To be honest, I read this and thought the headline is terribly unhelpful. These people are not "held unlawfully" on purpose, they are in a care home because that's the best place for them, and the DOLS order just takes a while to be given, that is all. It doesn't mean there are thousands of desperate people being tied to chairs or anything!
When I heard this today I was quite alarmed - am I depriving my husband of his liberty? I keep doors locked but then we always have even though we live in a relatively quiet cul-de-sac with lovely neighbours. Keys are there but he cannot get out as he cannot use the keys but someone is always with him. Seemed a bit ott to me - I see it as keeping my husband safe from wandering off - it doesn't take long! Perhaps a bit short of news today.
You are all echoing my thoughts as I posted the link but I was trying to aim for 'editorial independence' lol .... and I had an appointment so had to run.
The journalism is dire and was probably a barely edited press release. What I find far more disturbing is the angle of the report itself which seems to be ignorant of exactly how the system works - which is worrying from alleged 'experts'.
As we all know from either personal experience or multiple threads on TP, so often relatives or friends have to wait for dangerous situations to develop, before anything can be done to help pwds who are a danger to themselves and in denial about their problems.
Oh dear.... I knew it would raise eyebrows here. Quite rightly imo. While it's important that the rights of pwd's are respected, it's equally important to keep people safe.
The journalism is dire and was probably a barely edited press release. What I find far more disturbing is the angle of the report itself which seems to be ignorant of exactly how the system works - which is worrying from alleged 'experts'.
As we all know from either personal experience or multiple threads on TP, so often relatives or friends have to wait for dangerous situations to develop, before anything can be done to help pwds who are a danger to themselves and in denial about their problems.
Oh dear.... I knew it would raise eyebrows here. Quite rightly imo. While it's important that the rights of pwd's are respected, it's equally important to keep people safe.
More Details on the DOL report
Law Commission reveals Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards replacement
Government-ordered review recommends replacing DoLS with new two-tier system of human rights protections.
"Under the LPS, the BIA role would be revised to a new ‘Approved Mental Capacity Professional’ (AMCP) role and the requirement for a best interests assessment in every case is dropped. AMCPs would only be focused only on more “serious” cases where care arrangements are contrary to the person’s wishes."
I can see the point with other, non-dementia, situations but 'care arrangements contrary to the person's wishes' is an extremely common situation with dementia as we all know.... this could complicate further, situations that are already very complicated and stressful for both people who have dementia and their carers.
I suspect they're trying to find a once-size-fits-all and it just doesn't does it..
Law Commission reveals Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards replacement
Government-ordered review recommends replacing DoLS with new two-tier system of human rights protections.
"Under the LPS, the BIA role would be revised to a new ‘Approved Mental Capacity Professional’ (AMCP) role and the requirement for a best interests assessment in every case is dropped. AMCPs would only be focused only on more “serious” cases where care arrangements are contrary to the person’s wishes."
I can see the point with other, non-dementia, situations but 'care arrangements contrary to the person's wishes' is an extremely common situation with dementia as we all know.... this could complicate further, situations that are already very complicated and stressful for both people who have dementia and their carers.
I suspect they're trying to find a once-size-fits-all and it just doesn't does it..
From one of the consultation documents:
"On balance the consultation paper also provisionally proposes that protective care should extend to family and other domestic settings. It would be unacceptable to require that every case of deprivation of liberty in a domestic setting be taken to a court. This would be
unnecessarily onerous and expensive for public authorities, and potentially distressing for the individual and family concerned."
"On balance the consultation paper also provisionally proposes that protective care should extend to family and other domestic settings. It would be unacceptable to require that every case of deprivation of liberty in a domestic setting be taken to a court. This would be
unnecessarily onerous and expensive for public authorities, and potentially distressing for the individual and family concerned."
Ok the legal thread has been merged with the reporting thread which is a shame because I wanted to make the new thread specifically around the actual documents rather than woolly reporting by newspapers....
I actually think it's important to separate the two.
A speed read of the documents produces something rather more nuanced. There's actually a lot of good things in the report generally speaking but I am still concerned about how this will impact on dementia and specifically, how local authorities interpret it if it passes 'as is' into law.
Here's a video of the lead lawyer, Tim Spencer-Lane, on why DOL is not working
I actually think it's important to separate the two.
A speed read of the documents produces something rather more nuanced. There's actually a lot of good things in the report generally speaking but I am still concerned about how this will impact on dementia and specifically, how local authorities interpret it if it passes 'as is' into law.
Here's a video of the lead lawyer, Tim Spencer-Lane, on why DOL is not working
Going through the court process now - very stressful
I was just looking through your posts for some context and realised that you have been going through this for over a year. That's really tough. There's so many examples in the threads on this site as to why DOLs can be problematic without a specific understanding of the nature of dementia.
When it comes to mental capacity assessments I've seen the best - a consultant who took over an hour, invited me to observe, and circled round my mother coming at her from so many different, subtle, angles. And the worst - a social worker who spent a quick ten minutes and tried to suggest my mother was fine.....
I hope it goes ok for you.....
Residentail homes
I had to convince my mam to go into a residential home, as she was a risk to herself at home, it was the hardest thing I had to do, my mam had Alzheimer's and she was a transplant patient with psc disease, so she needed anti rejection meds every day, she would not take them then take a different day and totally confuse her carers and me, she had the best residential home and loved it there, I took her out mist days and she was always eager to get back,
I had to convince my mam to go into a residential home, as she was a risk to herself at home, it was the hardest thing I had to do, my mam had Alzheimer's and she was a transplant patient with psc disease, so she needed anti rejection meds every day, she would not take them then take a different day and totally confuse her carers and me, she had the best residential home and loved it there, I took her out mist days and she was always eager to get back,
