Care needs assessment.

[Valpiana]

Hi,just looking for some advice from people who have had a care needs assesment. After 9 months of tests and scans my husband has been diagnosed with moderate dementia. I already have attendance allowance,have applied for Council Tax discount, and many other things. I waited until we had a formal diagnosis letter and have now applied for a Carer's Assessment. I recieved a phone call and have a date arranged for someone to come and do the assesment. While on the phone I asked about a Care Needs Assesment for my husband. I was told that the threshold for those is high and we could talk about it during my assesment which is in December. Surely If I have needs as a carer which they are happy to acknowledge, my husband who needs care also needs an assessment? At the moment it's not an urgent matter as his dementia is progressing very slowly but I don't want to wait until we are in a desperate situation. Any advice about this would be welcome. Many thanks.

 

[Helly68]

Valpiana, I am afraid what I say may come as a disapointment, if so, I am sorry.

Assessments are a bit of a catch 22. Councils are obliged to offer a carers assessment (as they should) and so they do. However, with the assessment of people with dementia, things get a bit more complicated and not in a good way. Basically, my Mum (now late stage mixed dementia in a care home) had an assessment in the early stages - and social services basically concluded that there wasn't anything they could offer. It was a waste of time. Not all councils are the same, I hope you have a better experience.
The reality is that services have been slashed in council associated social care and staff reduced. Day care and respite services are not always available. Staff know this and therefore focus the stretched resource on those with most need. This sadly (unless you are self funding) can mean that you cannot access services until a crisis, as many on here have found. It is a very poor situation.
If you are able to self-fund (we self-funded a kind of "day care" at a local home, where Mummy now lives, because no day care was offered elsewhere and to get her used to it) but I realise not everyone can do this and we shouldn't have to.

I hope the carers assessment goes well.

 

[karaokePete]

Hello @Valpiana you are welcome here and I hope you find the forum to be a friendly and supportive place.

I hope you have time to take a good look around the site as it is a goldmine for information. When I first joined I read old threads for information but then found the AS Publications list and the page where a post code search can be done to check for support services in ones own area. If you are interested in these, clicking the following links will take you there

https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/publications-factsheets-full-list

https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/find-support-near-you

You will see that there are Factsheets that will help with things like getting care needs assessments, deciding the level of care required and sorting out useful things like Wills, Power of Attorney etc., if any of that hasn't already been done. There is also a Dementia Guide in the list.

Now that you have found us I hope you will keep posting as the membership has vast collective knowledge and experience.

 

[Shedrech]

hello @Valpiana
a warm welcome to DTP

you've done well to organise so much ... I hope you've thought of LPAs too, if not this link may help
https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney
and you are wise to want to look into care provision, it will help you both

as your husband has qualified for Attendance Allowance, he has a pretty high level of care needs and so, to me, evidenced that it's appropriate to have an assessment of his care needs by your LA ... he has a right to this, so don't let them fob you off ... if they ask about money, fob them off (say he has run finances so you're not sure how things stand and can't even estimate) as the financial assessment should follow that for care needs
when I wanted to arrange day care for my dad, that could only be accessed through the LA (can be different in each area), so required an assessment by Adult Services

yes, LAs are stretched and some say if you are self-funding you can just go ahead and arrange any care you need ... but your husband does have a right to an assessment nevertheless
I'm surprised they have agreed to a carer's assessment for you ... that usually comes after the care needs assessment which provides the evidence of how much care you are providing ... so use that as leverage

these pages on the main AS site explain about paying care fees
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/legal-financial/who-pays-care

and the assessment
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/legal-financial/assessment-care-support-england