Advice - grandad has vascular dementia

[amyt]

Hello,

My granddad (86) was recently diagnosed with Vascular dementia (roughly January 2015), he has deteriorated quite rapidly.
He has very bad knees and cannot walk 5 yards on his own, recently 3 weeks ago he went to hospital as he couldn't get up out of bed. He spent a week in hospital and 2 weeks in rehabilitation in a care home to get him walking again, they sent him home last Thursday but he cannot walk by himself so he has 4 care visits during the day now.

He has lost the ability to control his bladder/bowels, and has accidents nearly every day now.

Since leaving the care home last Thursday he has been found on the floor twice by 1 of his carers.
The carer phoned an ambulance this morning as he couldn't physically get up, he couldn't move at all, it doesn't help having an ulcer on both backs of his legs.

I think we will have to look into care homes permanently now, has anyone got any advice of what steps to take next?

Thank you for your help!

 

[Quilty]

Hello & welcome,

You will find a lot of support and advice here. My Mum had to go into full time care due to falls so I understand what a big, hard step this is for you.

Is your grandfather self funding? If he is then its much easier. You find a CH you like that has space and move him into it after they accept that they can meet his care needs. I looked at the CHs on the social services list before choosing one. I did not pick the nicest looking one, but one that felt like "home" to me. The staff are kind and caring, getting the residents to laugh and being tender with them. The building is a bit grubby but my Mum does not notice this. Read the official reports and meet the people in charge - you can get a good feel for the general attitude this way.

I told my mum she was going to a special hotel for retired people that had nurses on hand to help with medication and any health worries. She told me it was the best hotel she had ever been to as there were no noisy children!

I have always made sure I praise everything I like about the CH on a regular basis. When members of staff are extra kind in any way, not just to my Mother I pass this onto the CH manager. This makes any concerns or complaints I have much more balanced. So many families only make complaints. Biggest issue is stuff going missing, but that happened at home too. Tracking the possessions of 40 people when there are so many with dementia is almost impossible. My mum picks up other peoples stuff - glasses, cardigans etc, and this happens to her stuff too. Its all labelled so you just need to relax and understand it usually turns up. Have plenty of reasonably priced bits of clothing and label it all. Anything precious take a photo so staff can see what you are looking for. Most things turn up.

If you sell this as a positive and go in every time with a big smile then it can be OK. We will be here waiting to hear how you get on.
Love
Quilty

 

[jaymor]

Hello amyt

Welcome to Talking Point.

Where you go from here will depend on how care is to be paid for if you choose that route. Assets in access of £23,500 will mean he will be self funding. Ha assets will be any savings, investments and his house if he owns it and lives alone.

Self funding means you can go ahead and choose his care home and your Dad will pay the fees, the LA will not be involved.

Below £23,000 and approx £14,500 and the local authority will be involved. This means financial assessment and an assessment of your Dad's needs. They will pay some towards care put not all.

Below £14,500 then the Local authority will be involved a little more and your Dad will contribute his state pension and any private pension. If he has a spouse then half of the private pension will go to them and of course the house will be disregarded from any assessment.

This is a very simplified explanation but will give you an idea as to who to contact if you need help with the funding.

 

[AnneED]

Hi,
One or two other things that occur to me:

If you like a care home and really want a place there but it's full right now don't worry too much as spaces come up frequently.
It's not ideal but you can always move your granddad if you find you don't like a home after he's moved in to it.
Start labelling stuff now as that is the best way to keep his stuff from going missing.
Check whether he can get any NHS continuing care funding because of nursing needs - it may be worth making sure the home has nursing care as well as 'general' care.
Prepare some things for him to take that remind him of his past life (maybe stuff from when he was younger or earlier in his marriage)
Go on gut instinct at the end of the day when choosing your home (after having checked that they meet the usual standards.)

Hope this helps.

 

[fizzie]

These are really useful to have a look at. They give you useful info and a checklist when you are looking

https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=150

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/home-and-care/care-homes/finding-a-care-home/