I don't know a lot about care for Dementia over here (NZ), although I have researched a lot for the UK and, of course, gained valuable insight from the forum. What I have gleaned from a little research (I suddenly thought I ought to know the position here, as we're both getting older, and having family members (UK) struggling with dementia tends to polarise the mind
) is that there is not the same duty of care on authorities that we have in the UK. The local council has no input, it seems to be charities and the District Health Boards that are the 'go-to' organisations, but from what I understand talking to people with pwds it falls very much to them to cope.
Also the financing is different.....there is no splitting off finances with couples:
"If your parent has a partner, their income and assets are included in the assessment. This applies even they consider each other’s assets to be separate property. A partner is defined as being legally married, in a civil union, or in a de-facto relationship."
"
Two asset thresholds apply:
- Threshold A: $218,423
- Threshold B: $119,614
Threshold A includes all assets. Threshold B excludes the family home and one car.
Threshold A will apply for single people and couples who are both in residential care.
Couples with one person in residential care can choose either Threshold A or Threshold B.
The term asset includes cash and savings, property and possessions.
the average house price is approx $650k so there are an awful lot of self-funders (to convert to sterling I roughly halve it).
It has made me think hard about how to organise our finances in the future 'just in case'', knowing that even if we moved back to England we would not be eligible for health care for 2 years. It was only when I was talking to a friend who works in Age Concern that I found out that family members can't step back and leave it to the authorities.....I'm a little jealous of the NHS, imperfect and struggling as it is
Still working on unpicking the system here.....gets confusing when I've got the UK system in my mind