My mum has recently been given Caramazapen without my knowledge. I wrote to the care home but they have not replied as to why I was not told. The worse thing is mum has been almost comatosed on it and the Gp has now stopped it. The home were ademant she wasnt that bad telling me it would wear off etc..that said she is also on Mematine now and the dose increased last week which to me coincided with this deep sleep I am trying to get the doctor to reduce her dose of this to check it is not this that is continuing her sleepfulness as when she missed one lot of meds at the weekend she picked up a little..it may well be the Caramazapen which I had no knowledge of but as she is still difficult to wake it the continued amount of Mematine could be to blame. Either way I am so cross not to be informed I do not have POA sadly but even so I think it can't be right for them to do this and give caramazapen esp when I feel they dont use proper strategies..advice?
care home gave medication without my knowledge
- Thread starter marsh03
- Start date
When you have a PWD admitted to a care home without you having POA I would guess that your control over meds etc is fairly limited. You are basically saying to them that you cannot care for her and so they are having to find a way to do it instead. Was she a difficult patient?
It is not "the care home" that has started/increased medication - it is her GP and the care home will have been carrying out his/her instructions. It is a bit of a shame that they did not tell you, but without POA they do not have to.
My husband had POA health for his mother when she was in a care home. The only time the home discussed medication was to do with end of life care . Any other change of medication was just left to the GP without his knowledge. If you don't have POA, then it's unrealistic to expect anyone to discuss it with you
I do not think it is too much to expect the care home to discuss meds with next of kin with or without power of attorney if the next of kin has been concerned and involved enough to worry about their loved ones condition.
This is a huge bug bear of mine and GP’s don’t usually change medication without some reason or feedback from the carehome staff, so if staff are concerned enough to raise an ‘issue’ with the GP, they should also be able to inform the next of kin also. If someone has capacity then Dr’s shouldn’t just change medication without discussing the rationale with the patient first so they can give informed consent, and this should be the same for someone who has been deemed to no longer have capacity, where a discussion should take place with the next of kin.
At my dad’s care home we have had several issues with medication being prescribed without any discussion despite visiting at length daily and having power of attorney. We now have it written in his notes that all medication changes to be discussed with family first and the staff are aware of our wishes.
This is a huge bug bear of mine and GP’s don’t usually change medication without some reason or feedback from the carehome staff, so if staff are concerned enough to raise an ‘issue’ with the GP, they should also be able to inform the next of kin also. If someone has capacity then Dr’s shouldn’t just change medication without discussing the rationale with the patient first so they can give informed consent, and this should be the same for someone who has been deemed to no longer have capacity, where a discussion should take place with the next of kin.
At my dad’s care home we have had several issues with medication being prescribed without any discussion despite visiting at length daily and having power of attorney. We now have it written in his notes that all medication changes to be discussed with family first and the staff are aware of our wishes.
The care home cannot discuss medication as they are not the ones making the decisions - it is the Doctor. Without a POA there are confidentiality issues and they can get in trouble for discussing health issues even with next of kin. Even with POA health you cannot block medical care be it medication or vaccinations - medical staff have to act within the law which is basically to act in the patients best interest unless the pwd has been assessed by social services as having capacity to make informed decisions (which granted many people in the earlier stages of dementia have). Unless a living will or POA mentions specific issues it can be difficult to dispute treatment that is deemed necessary even if you disagree.
Please everyone, go to gov.co.uk and make your own POA's if you have not yet done so and make it clear what care you would or would not tolerate .
More and more companies and agencies are becoming insistent on having sight of POA - my MIL hides or throws away all her post, I have had to register her POA at the GP surgery so they will discuss her health issues with us, and I have to supply her POA to her opticians tomorrow to even get a correspondence address added to her opticians file so we get the reminders for her eye test.
Please everyone, go to gov.co.uk and make your own POA's if you have not yet done so and make it clear what care you would or would not tolerate .
More and more companies and agencies are becoming insistent on having sight of POA - my MIL hides or throws away all her post, I have had to register her POA at the GP surgery so they will discuss her health issues with us, and I have to supply her POA to her opticians tomorrow to even get a correspondence address added to her opticians file so we get the reminders for her eye test.
Thank you, that’s very good advice about making a living will and/ or POA.
My struggle is that whilst looking after my dad at home with Alzheimer’s for 13 years, my mum gave him all his medications prescribed by his memory clinic consultant. Mum and I were able to observe what drugs helped and what didn’t, and fed this back to his consultant, but shortly after he went into a nursing home a GP, who had never met him before prescribed sedation for him to be given every morning with breakfast as he was not happy to have personal care. I would come in to find him asleep in his breakfast and unable to walk, talk or stay awake for the rest of the day and thought he’d had a stroke until l was told of the medication changes and he had to stay on it like that for a week until the GP visited again the following week. Had he been at home like that we would have phoned the prescribing Dr and discussed stopping the medication immediately, but once you hand over your loved one to a nursing home it’s almost as if your opinion counts for nothing.
I would never block medical care for my dad, but a simple discussion with the people who know him best doesn’t hurt.
