care at home

[joanie]

I've just spent an hour on the phone to the social worker trying to argue the point to point of letting Mum have 22hr care in her own home rather than sending her to an emi residential home which she is so very much against.
I don't know whether I'm being too optomistic thinking it would work out if she was given the opportunity to try.
Social workers and all the mental health medics just seem so keen on the residential route. She 's 94 physically fit for her age and was taken into the local mental health hospital under a section 2 now a 3 because over a period of about 3 weeks she started wandering out on her own and did'nt know where she was.
Up to then she has lived on her own with family support.
To my mind she has become more confused in this five weeks she has been in this hospital mixing with all these people at different stages of confusion, some really bad.
She has'nt been given any dementia medication except a sedative to quieten her down at various times,and never had a brain scan . She was pushed over by a patient on the first day she was there and severly cut her leg and has been on anti biotics since as it became so swollen and infected. What made me so angry the staff made no attempt to inform the family of this accident. over the following week I had to keep on asking for treatment for her leg like changing the dressing and water tablets for the swelling . Mental health workers seem unable to treat the whole person. My overall impression of the care of mental health patients is very poor the staff seem below the standard of a medical hospital.
Patients just are wandering about looking for the door to get out . There is no structure to their day and very little organised activities.
Very worrying for everyone
Joanie

 

[jarnee]

Hi Joanie,

I wish you luck in your bid to get round the clock care at home instead of a residential place.

When we looked at support for mum who was caring for dad, we asked about the possibility of someone coming in just to talk to him for a few hours a day to give mum a break (she had cancer and was worn out !). But we were offered day care or respite care instead and told that what we wanted was virtually unheard of.....all down to costs I believe.

It may be different in your area, but that was the case round our way, so the chances of the amount of care you are asking for beng granted would not have even been considered for us. Like I say it may be different for you. Unless, maybe you can afford to employ a team of staff yourself.

The experiences you decsribe in the mental health hosp do not, thankfully, sound anything like the experiences we have had with elderly residential care for dad ( who has AD but is physically as fit as a fiddle).
Maybe go and look at some homes and ask questions before you decide. I understand she doesn't want to go, but a bit of kiddology got dad there !!

Jarnee
xxxxxxxxxxx

 

[Norman]

Hi Joanie and welcome to TP
I am not sure if you can get what you want,or some of it from the information in these links,but have a look
http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/After_diagnosis/Getting_support/info_communityassessment.htm.
and http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/After_diagnosis/Sorting_out_your_money/info_directpayments.htm
I receive Direct payments and it does give flexibility.
Best wishes
Norman

 

[jenniferpa]

I think it's very unlikely to happen, more's the pity. Economically, it would simply be untenable. At a rate of £10 per hour (more at nights and weekends) 22 hours of care per day would cost a staggering £1540 a week. As Norman said, direct payments give you flexibility, but not that much.

Jennifer

 

[Lila13]

Before I visited my mother in that last hospital I was actually relieved they'd put her in a ward for elderly people with mental illnesses (after all only a few weeks before we'd been told repeatedly that there was "nothing wrong with her mind"), but I was appalled by the place when I got there. Just the sort of place she was dreading ending up in.

Of course I don't know if she'd have died sooner or later if she hadn't been taken there, but I do know she could have died in more congenial surroundings.

I did write in detail to the hospital but I don't suppose they are going to take any notice of my comments.

Lila

Mental health workers seem unable to treat the whole person. My overall impression of the care of mental health patients is very poor the staff seem below the standard of a medical hospital.



Joanie

 

[jenniferpa]

Fascinating reading. The thing that gets me, though, is that £1000 a week is still not enough to provide 24/7 care. From the document, it appears that these funds go to support an additional paid carer plus provide a further carer when Mrs Pointon isn't there. It does seem that the primary reason she got what she did was because her husband needs 2 carers available at all times, not just the one that most of us deal with.

Jennifer

 

[Lynne]

Just call me cynical (if you like), but

perhaps a 2nd 'primary reason' was because their case attracted the attention & support of the news media ...

(Not that they don't deserve all the help they can get, I hasten to add - not being dog-in-a-manger about it.)