Bed blocking agony

Quilty

Registered User
Aug 28, 2014
1,050
0
GLASGOW
Hi, My mum has Vas D and Alz. I found her on New Years Day after being on the floor all night. The carers had not been able to get in and had no contact numbers - Thats a whole, other post! Anyway 999 and 5 weeks in hospital later the bed blocking issue is all over the news and £100M is released to "solve it". The result was the hospital social work discharge team decided she was fit enough to go home with x3 daily care, This was against my wishes and also those of her social worker. We had been working on getting a respite visit to a CH with a view to her moving into one.

3 weeks later its groundhog day and I find her on the floor again after being there all night. I was only there to let workmen in to the house before I left for work. The carer was not scheduled to be there until 11am so possibility of 14hrs on the floor with no-one knowing.

There main rationale for this was that she had an alert system in place to call for help. Unfortunately due to AD she has not been able to remember she has an alert for the past 12-18 months and was not using it. She did not press it this time. She had 3 other falls before this one, all trying to get out of bed but thankfully all during the bay.

So now I am digging my heels in or as my daughter says "going all Ninja" on them. I have taken the keys out of the keysafe and will not be accepting her home unless they provide an overnight carer every night. Her carers have been great, so have her own social worker and she would be paying for most of the cost so how come this can go so wrong?

Tonight will be my first solid sleep for 3 weeks. During the 5 weeks she was in hospital I got used to being a normal functioning human again. Its hard to go back again.

To everyone out there in the same boat dont give in as easily as I did. Get in touch with your own inner Ninja.
 

Lilac Blossom

Registered User
Oct 6, 2014
609
0
Scotland
Hope you sleep well tonight Quilty and that the promised care arrangements will be in place before mum returns home. Good thinking on your part to remove all the keys.

Now, hope I can find my inner Ninja.
 

Kevinl

Registered User
Aug 24, 2013
6,064
0
Salford
I do hate the term "bed blocking" it always seems like it's the person in questions fault. What it should be called is something like "A failure in the system to operate properly" it's the systems fault a person remains in hospital "bed blocking" not theirs.
I don't see why you should let the send her home without proper night cover and until they do they'll have to keep her in hospital.
Go all :ninja: on them, love that expression.
K
 

Rosie56

Registered User
Oct 5, 2013
75
0
I agree, 'bed blockers' makes the person sound like some disagreeable obstruction instead of a human being experiencing the rough end of an underfunded health service.

Good luck, Quilty.
 

Quilty

Registered User
Aug 28, 2014
1,050
0
GLASGOW
thanks for the support

I am mentally training my inner Ninja. Everyone has the right to be safe. And I have the right to be mums advocate. New rules.

Strength & support to all you TPers out there.

love
Quilty
 

Cath59

Registered User
Jan 23, 2015
46
0
We were told very matter of factly that social services don't "do" overnight care. Home with maximum four brief visits a day, or organise it yourself and self fund. While that's going on the hospital discharge officers are busy ticking off anyone "medically fit to discharge" by trying to put them somewhere as quickly and efficiently as they can. We're just at the beginning of dementia (or rather, very suddenly parachuted into the middle of it), with my mother, but at the same time my severely autistic brother has had a stroke. His hospital had booked transport to take him to a completely unsuitable nursing home. Capacity assessment? Best interests assessment? Worry about that later. If I hadn't talked to the nursing home, I think they'd have found him on their doorstep. It's the same mentality/pressure to free up beds at work with our mothers.
Wishing you the very best of luck!
 

flossielime

Registered User
May 8, 2014
201
0
Hi
I am considering my dad doing some bed blocking too! In my case they want dad in a NH which I am coming around to accepting but he had an accident only 3 weeks ago and they have already wrote him off as unsuitable for physio. I am going to try and keep him in hospital were he is getting physio. I suppose they would stop giving him physio there too if I was awkward.

Our SS also don't 'do' nightcare. And will only do 4 care visits a day.
 

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