Care homes

[maggie6445]

Hi, does anyone get offered a place near to home/ family?

It seems from a lot of posts here that offers of LA funded places are miles from families. Those places must be near some families!

Is this social services way of getting families to top up fees instead of increasing their rates? People top up to stay local?

If you have a pwd in home how many LA funded residents are from the local area? It might explain why some don't get visitors.

I'm getting increasingly frustrated by our so called care system and wonder if this " place away from family/ home is strategic. " Or am I being unfair in thinking this ?

 

[Rishile]

Hi, does anyone get offered a place near to home/ family?

It seems from a lot of posts here that offers of LA funded places are miles from families. Those places must be near some families!

Is this social services way of getting families to top up fees instead of increasing their rates? People top up to stay local?

If you have a pwd in home how many LA funded residents are from the local area? It might explain why some don't get visitors.

I'm getting increasingly frustrated by our so called care system and wonder if this " place away from family/ home is strategic. " Or am I being unfair in thinking this ?

Hi @maggie6445

In my experience, the Care Home my husband was placed in by SS was very close to me. It was a 10 minute drive and he was placed in an emergency so I couldn't complain. The next nearest that was available would have been an hour's drive away. A lot of the residents I was able to talk to had lived quite close and some of those never received visitors because their families lived further away although some of the relatives lived locally and still never visited.

I found the whole 'Care Home' system totally inadequate. I think you may be right that it is a strategy to make relatives pay more. Nothing would surprise me. When my husband was due to be discharged from the Special Dementia Unit they were talking about him being moved to a Care Home about two hours (or more) away. This would have been impossible for me as I was visiting every day (and they knew this). It was a huge battle to get him back home where he belonged.

Personally, I found the system wanted relatives to keep out of the way as much as possible but continue to pay the fees. I didn't find the care that was available to my husband was adequate so provided all his care myself. I wasn't prepared to abandon my husband to people who didn't care if he was washed or shaved or fed properly or even able to keep him safe.

 

[Louise7]

Mum has been in several homes and the first three she was placed in by social services were all within the same borough/local authority area where she was living. These placements, at a time when mum was not self-funding, were all over 5 years ago though. One of the homes was council owned but most council owned care homes seem to have closed now, and not many private homes are keen on taking local authority funded placements either.

When trying to find a placement for mum recently, as a self-funder, there was not a lot of choice available locally in terms of nursing homes with vacancies so mum is now living in another local authority area. Prices were pretty much the same across a number of the local authorities that we looked at, and most privately owned homes required a top-up, and not all will accept LA rates.

In terms of social services 'getting families to top-up fees instead of increasing their rates' there are only limited amounts of social care funding to go round, and top-ups are not mandatory. I imagine that there will be some families who are in a position, and are willing to pay, top-ups, but it won't necessarily mean that the placement will be local, it will depend on availability. There seems to be a lack of EMI homes too, meaning that these are likely to be further afield.

I know that in mum's previous home there was at least one resident who had been placed there from a neighbouring local authority due to their specific needs. Some residents had visitors and some didn't but from speaking with relatives and care staff this was down to a whole variety of reasons. Many families tend to be spread far and wide these days, the days of family all living close to each other (as when I was younger) seem to have long gone. Although my sister (and other family) don't visit mum as often as I do due to where they live, we have video calls when I visit mum and my sister is still as involved in mum's care as I am. I fully appreciate that the situation is different when a partner is in a home though, and I don't think that many with personal experience of the social care system would disagree that it is broken.

 

[Jessbow]

My mother was placed in one 45 min away, round the M25- and i hate motorways.
Did the plcement suit her? Yes.
Were they kind to her? Yes
If there were more plces, people wouldnt be so far from home. problem is, places are where they are, when they are availible.
Say rosemary was placed one side of Birmingham, and Sally the other because thats where spaces were.
maybe they coud swap- what an upheaval!

Do I think its strategic? no. Who is it important to? Most people /families can travel- yes it might be inconvenient etc etc but....

in an ideal world, self funders should get places near 'home' but that doesnt happen either. Space again

 

[jugglingmum]

Mum was self funding. I looked at lots of care homes within a 20 minute drive radius of my house, and the cheapest one which I know doesn't require top ups was a 5 minute walk away. I'm aware there was another one 15 minute drive away not requiring top ups.

I think the issue is there aren't many homes where top ups aren't required.

In the case of the 2 homes mentioned above they both have an excellent care reputation and therefore are very sought after locally, irrespectiveof available funds, although I think they both keep the last vacancy for council funded and emergency placements.

Most homes charge significantly more than the council is prepared to pay.

As for visiting, I visited mum every 2 to 3 weeks. Before dementia I saw her every 6 to 8 weeks as she lived 3.5 hours away. I was working part time and much of my evenings and weekends were spent taking my son to his sports events. I could only spread myself so far. I was dealing with her paperwork etc on top of this. The regular visitors at mum's care home were older than me without child commitments.

 

[SAP]

My mum is in a home just 10 minutes away from me . Her first home was chosen by me and paid for by mum. Now on117 aftercare funding her home was allocated by the hospital social worker who did a really good job of keeping her in the LA where we live. Most of the residents are from the local area as are the staff. A few residents are from other areas as it is a specialist unit and beds are very scarce for the kind of care mum needs so I’m extremely grateful.
The lovely thing for mum is that after living in London for over 50 years she is finally hearing the geordie accent again just minutes away from where she went to school.

 

[Msolo]

This is something I am worrying about as my son says I should not have my husband who has dementia and had a stroke is now bedridden back home from the hospital as I am disabled as well. But I do not really want him to go into a care home as I do not know what they are like in my area and there have been so many things in the papers about the care that they give. As he is bedridden whilst in hospital there is someone to see what he his doing when he tries to get out of bed, but in a care home he will be in room on his own and if he gets out of bed he will fall

 

[Banjomansmate]

My experience was five years ago. Once it was decided that The Banjoman need residential care the LA put his case out to tender i.e. any care homes who had space and thought he fitted their criteria for care put in a bid to take him. All were in the same area, within 20 miles of his home. I enquired about him going nearer his family, about 20 miles in the opposite direction and under a different LA but was told it was unlikely.
Members of his family and I looked at the three places that were offered and once we agreed on one, a member of staff went to visit him to check that they could cope with him. Once that was done he was moved within a couple of days.

The LA may have a list of homes that they “use” but the final decision is up to the care home manager as to whether or not they can cope with the needs of each prospective patient.

 

[maggie6445]

Thank you to everyone who has responded.