After a very stressful weekend following Brian's return from respite on Friday morning, I went to his Day Centre to be present at an assessment of him there, plus his Social Worker. (Brian is so much better this morning, his amiable sweet self, and he had smiled in pleasure when I told him it was a Day Centre morning.)
The SW, Day Centre Manager and I chatted for a bit in a quiet room (a kitchen) before bringing Brian in. The SW asked how the respite week had gone and I told her: Brian had come home injured, incoherent and constipated. She and the manager both made notes.
The manager then said that Brian had on two occasions recently tried to leave the building, that it was a large building and the staff could not be expected to keep an eye on him constantly and that in view of that he was now a risk under Public Health and Safety and they wanted him to cease attending by the end of the next six weeks. I have had two 'phone calls from them about him wanting to leave but had not grasped the implications, both 'phone calls within the last month.
She had clearly already discussed this with the SW as she (the SW) said "As I told you, there are no vacancies in the dementia Day Centre at G------ Road and there are waiting lists for each day of the week." The SW told me that instead there could be payments to me under the Direct Payments Scheme and I could either employ someone to take Brian out for, say, three hours twice a week, or she could advertise for a PA who would have to be interviewed and they would pay the PA for taking Brian out. Did I know anyone who might be willing to take Brian out? "What? A friend willing to take him out on a regular basis and tell him 'Oh, by the way, you will get a salary for doing this'?" "Yes." I have a friend who takes him out about once every two or three weeks, but to ask him to do it on a twice-weekly basis would, I feel, be asking too much of a dear friend. (He is seventy himself and has not long retired.)
Has anyone else experience of setting up an arrangement like this? I would so like to hear that it can be successfully done. But I personally would be stumped when it came to thinking up places to go and things to do. Handing Brian over for six hours a week to someone with no training, however nice they may prove to be, is not something I feel happy about doing at the moment. Can anyone give me some reassurance?
The SW, Day Centre Manager and I chatted for a bit in a quiet room (a kitchen) before bringing Brian in. The SW asked how the respite week had gone and I told her: Brian had come home injured, incoherent and constipated. She and the manager both made notes.
The manager then said that Brian had on two occasions recently tried to leave the building, that it was a large building and the staff could not be expected to keep an eye on him constantly and that in view of that he was now a risk under Public Health and Safety and they wanted him to cease attending by the end of the next six weeks. I have had two 'phone calls from them about him wanting to leave but had not grasped the implications, both 'phone calls within the last month.
She had clearly already discussed this with the SW as she (the SW) said "As I told you, there are no vacancies in the dementia Day Centre at G------ Road and there are waiting lists for each day of the week." The SW told me that instead there could be payments to me under the Direct Payments Scheme and I could either employ someone to take Brian out for, say, three hours twice a week, or she could advertise for a PA who would have to be interviewed and they would pay the PA for taking Brian out. Did I know anyone who might be willing to take Brian out? "What? A friend willing to take him out on a regular basis and tell him 'Oh, by the way, you will get a salary for doing this'?" "Yes." I have a friend who takes him out about once every two or three weeks, but to ask him to do it on a twice-weekly basis would, I feel, be asking too much of a dear friend. (He is seventy himself and has not long retired.)
Has anyone else experience of setting up an arrangement like this? I would so like to hear that it can be successfully done. But I personally would be stumped when it came to thinking up places to go and things to do. Handing Brian over for six hours a week to someone with no training, however nice they may prove to be, is not something I feel happy about doing at the moment. Can anyone give me some reassurance?