Care Homes

[blodders]

Can anyone advise me re Care Homes? My Mum lives 100 miles away and is deteriorating fast. On Aricept but doesn't seem to help now. We were waiting for sheltered housing in our area but think she has gone past this. She has had an intermmediate care package for 3 months and is to have a social services assessment next week. We know her house will have to be sold to fund care but what happens when the money runs out? Would like her to be somewhere really nice but cost is unbelevable-about £1,000 per week! Is that the going rate? When funds run out would she have to move somewhere cheaper? Any advice would be so helpful.

 

[Amy]

Hiya Blodders,
The price varies on where you live...think the south is considerably dearer. Once mum's funds run out the local authority will take over funding, but they will only fund up to a certain level, so if your mum was in a more expensive Nursing Home the fees would have to be topped up by someone else, or she would have to move.
Helen

 

[Lanie]

I was advised that you should ask the home if they have any ss beds, and if they do are they seperate from self funding ones. If you find a home you like that does have ss beds to obtain in writing that your relative will not be moved when they fall under the threshold. The local branch of Alzheimers society have been very useful to me in saying what homes they know ss will fund and what they won't. even though you will be self funding get social services involved as you need them later on.
Don't be fooled by thinking that the best homes are necessarily the most expensive ones, I am in the process of looking and have found a home which is suitable and will be funded by ss later. Don't worry to much about decor its the quality of care that is the most important.

Good luck, its not easy.

Lanie

 

[christine scott]

Hi. Its difficuilt when you know its time to choose a nursing home. My mum was in hospital for 8 weeks before the nursing home was able to take my mum in.

When i went to visit the home. I was very impressed with the staff and everything. Never did they mention about fees and benefits. I asked them if it was okay for my mum as shes on benefits. It was no problems. And I dont believe she is in any different room from anyone else.

It is not right for anyone to move someone with dementia and this was said to me by the home manager that they never move anyone as it makes the dementia worse. So im assured my mum will be there to the end of her days.

I would imagine if a home is going to put you out because you no longer can afford it and they are not going to accept the payments from the government especially when You have payed so much to them. I would think seriously about this. Maybe in different areas have different fees.

Visit as many homes as possable;
I visited 3 and had a good feeling about the one I chose. the other 2 were under no circumstances would I ever send my mum there. One I was to visit in a weeks time . the other had to also make an appointement.

.
I was told when I asked for an appointment to view the home my mum is in I was told you should never need an appointment and should be able to visit at any time.

Good luck in finding a suitable home.

let us know how you get on.

 

[Tas_Bhatti]

Hi

All homes in England are now awarded "star" ratings based on the quality of care they provide.

You can goto www.csci.org.uk to see the star rating of homes and review the last inspection report.I would strongly reccomend you do this before making your decison about which home to put your loved one into. The inspection reports are usually very detailed and look at everything in the home including the quality of care provided etc.

Hope that helps.

 

[JPG1]

Dear Pharmacist

My own message to everyone who checks the CSCI website for 'star ratings' is please get out the salt ... and take a very large pinch of salt.

It is almost like the MOT test that we all have to submit our vehicles to on a given day. MOT test says that your vehicle was 'performing well' on the day of the test. But if your vehicle goes PHUT the day after MOT, then ... tough.

CSCI star ratings change. If anyone looks at a care home rating on any given day, then it may show a 2-star rating, for example, or even a 1-star rating which merely means adequate. But unless you go back and check that CSCI website frequently, then you may never discover that same care home now has a 'suspended rating' which means it is seriously in danger of closure, because it is failing the residents. In whichever way. And sometimes in very disastrous ways; very destructive ways; very damaging ways.

CSCI ratings should remind everyone looking at them that this rating may change overnight. It is possible that the 'star rating' you are looking at was based on an inspection of 2 years previous to the date at which you look at it. (We are told that many homes will only be inspected once every 3 years, if there were no 'major areas of concern' at its last inspection.) But things can change ... overnight almost. And unless and until those changes are investigated and inspected and reported upon (which can take many many months), then it can take many more months before that inspection report becomes available on the CSCI website .... the wheels turn very very slowly.

So extreme caution needs to be exercised by anyone looking at the CSCI website. Today, a quick look at the PRESS news section on CSCI revealed a couple of homes in the Midlands which have only very very recently been closed .... but the star rating from the previous allocation of ratings was still there; still describing 'what this home does well'. Fair enough, if the home is now closed it is not likely to be of concern to you if you were to wish to consider placing your family member to reside there, but it is an indication of how much caution needs to placed on any star rating of any care home.

With apologies for sounding perhaps slightly negative, but it is better to be aware than not.

 

[Marianne]

Dear Pharmacist

My dad was in a 3 star Excellent rated home and the actual inspection was carried out whilst he was resident there. This home abused him by barricading him into his room, beating down on him until he was black and blue. And to finish him off the manager was giving him Haloperidol not prescribed along with the Promazine that was prescribed.

So the star rating is the biggest load of .... I have come across, it also allows these homes to charge more.

 

[Tender Face]

On ratings ......

Conversely ..........

First home mum was in I wouldn't trust now to look after a pet hamster or even a houseplant while I had a break ....... no major issues on CSCI report

Last home she was in was an absolute 'beacon' .... it WAS rated excellent by CSCI but in some categories only came out of their report as 'good' ... I mentioned this travesty to some of the Nursing staff .... I considered some aspects of their care to be exceptional (not just 'good') from many hours of observations and experience, not just with mum but other residents and indeed the interaction and atmosphere between the staff themselves and the support extended to residents' families ....

One nurse remarked (of the CSCI), 'It's all about the quality of the paperwork' - and sadly I understood .... 'inspections' in most social arenas these days seem to be about checking on record keeping ... clever 'scribes' can cover a multitude of deficiencies ..... whilst the good homes (and I believe there are many of them) may be 'down-rated' because staff are more concerned about spending time with the residents than filling out forms (although some record keeping is obviously essential) .........

Preparing a report and/or rating on the basis of a few hours visit round the kitchen, the drug store and the filing cabinets in the nursing stations does not to me have any weight in rating the quality of care we all aspire for ......

Just my own grumpy humble opinion,

Karen

 

[JPG1]

Karen, conversation now…, conversely or otherwise …

Agreed, Karen:

A care home can be a ‘rubbish’ care home as ’experienced’ by any one of us or more importantly by any one of our relatives, even though no major issues are reported on CSCI inspection reports for the simple reason that any single CSCI report may be past its “use-by-date”. Things can change almost overnight, as some of us have experienced. (I feel almost as if I am apologising for CSCI now, which is not my intention!)

Change of manager; change of support staff; change of cleaning contract; change of ‘chef’; admission of new residents sometimes even – those ‘change factors’ all have an influence on the quality of the experience. And who is there to help (I nearly wrote ‘God help’ but even s/he can’t!!) the poor s.ds who just happen to arrive in the midst of any number or combination of those changes.

CSCI may not reappear to inspect for 3 years, especially if that last inspection revealed ‘no major issues’. (Afterthought: how do we ever know the standing of that CSCI inspection? Why was it carried out ‘announced’ or ‘unannounced’? Who decided that it should be announced or unannounced? If announced, how much notice was given? Was it carried out by a ‘novice’ or by an ‘experienced’ CSCI inspector? Have experience of ‘novice’ so no more comment now on that one.)

You sadly came into close contact with a care home and its inspection report that was long past its sell-by date, let alone its use-by-date. And I know it may be the only ‘compromised’ one that you came by – but one is sometimes all it takes. In fact, one can be more than it takes to demolish all that you have worked for and achieved over years.

And it is just that ‘one’ that just should not happen.

I remain convinced that it can be avoided by those in a position to do something about it: namely, in the first place the Care Home Provider. Often, too often, the Care Home Provider is the ‘faceless’ but the responsible one.

They too are supposed to visit, to inspect, to evaluate the service they are providing, to evaluate their appointed Manager in situ, the staff s/he employs, the systems in place. But how often is the Care Home Provider ever mentioned by name when things go wrong? How often is the Care Home Provider mentioned when things go well?

[I know it is not allowed on TP, but perhaps there is a need to set up a network of communication somehow, somewhere, someway, communication in particular from ‘us’ to ‘those’ who might be able to take up the cause on behalf of many of us. For all I know, the provider of your ‘compromised’ care home may well be the same provider of my own ‘compromised’ care home, even though we live hundreds of miles apart from each other, as the crow flies, from NW to SE.]

Equally conversationally:

A care home can be a gleaming shining beacon - like the one that you came by, thank goodness – without having a similarly shining inspection report. And the Care Home Provider of your shining beacon may be the same provider of ‘A N Other’s’ shining beacon care home.

So, again, perhaps there needs to be an ‘invisible’ communication network, via ‘ somewhere’, via TP or via ‘elsewhere’, to a central ‘body’ who can do something really positive with that information, to praise, to applaud, to celebrate the excellence of any particular care home provider, that excellence we are all seeking for our relatives. It would not need to be broadcast on TP, but merely submitted to a ‘body’ that cares enough to do something with the gathered information.

It might be a case of ‘fast hand-clap applaud’ and ‘slow hand-clap shame’ – but not on this forum. That would be neither acceptable, nor sensible.

To converse further about paperwork:

It is not always the ‘visible’ accessible-on-the-day-of-the-inspection paperwork that is of most importance. If important paperwork is … just not there, and is totally …. absent …. then someone should have noticed. Who? CSCI? Care Home Provider? Social Services? Surely the onus should not be on us!

But that ‘absent, invisible system’ may be all that it takes to … … … … do damage.

Apologies for longish conversation, Karen! But thanks for the opportunity.

 

[Christinec]

Hi,
To follow on thoughts on the inspection process. Two local homes here have had bad press in the papers and also word of mouth and coincidentally neither has had a recent inspection published although other better homes have been inspected twice in the period I have been keeping an eye on this. I do wonder whether inspections on good homes are done more regularly because they raise less issues and places in my area are in such short supply there must be enormous pressures not to have anything close.

There are several web sites with reviews of hotels and holiday resorts and I do think something like that must make the businesses involved very aware that a bad experience can dent a reputation very publically. I have no idea how they avoid being sued or indeed prevent misuse by someone malicously criticising a hotel or equally interested parties adding positive but untrue comments.

Was there not mention at some point in the past on TP of a new site where comments on care homes could be left. I vaguely remember having a look at a site under construction

My worry is from reading on TP how quickly things can change. I notice when I visit Mum how the atmosphere is differant depending which staff are there. As new people move in that also changes the whole enviroment.

In some areas including mine ther are few choices within reasonable travelling distances and as with many things the fact demand outstrips supply and lack of competition may work against good standards.

 

[icare2]

care homes are the very last resort

in our position,well in my own, if it wasent,for my lovely daughter,Margaret,i could have not have coped even with the great help of our local Social work Department,we have 58 hours a week,that is provided with 20 hours from the the local S.work dept. and 38 hours from the I.L.F. ( independant living fund) for people that are under the age of 65..so in total thats 58 hours a week,you can also get this from direct payments,if you are over this age,but you need a social worker thats experienced to guide you in the way to get this help,its there for all,best way is to get this help, telephone your nearest Princess trust,there numbers are in your local yellow pages..

 

[mica123]

I work in a care home and have been interviewed like other staff by the inspector from csci.all our comments were the same yet didn't appear on the scoring of the home in the report.be careful choosing a home,i suggest you turn up to view at mealtimes,they will try to fob you off they are busy,if they say that tell them you will look elsewhere,if they have nothing to hide they won't mind.