Dear All,
I haven't been able to post this whinge before now, because I was absolutely LIVID.
On Thursday afternoon I had an impromtu visit from our local CPN's. Over the years they have been quite helpful on an ad hoc visiting basis - once every 3/4 months or so for 15 minutes.
When my parents were due to move from close care accommodation last year, they strongly urged me to place my parents in Nursing Homes, as they felt I wouldn't be able to cope ALONE with two demented oldies. A fair enough comment. At that point I was investigating Homes, but ultimately rejected this option because my parents would have been separated. Ultimately, I rented a bungalow and enlisted the aid of two carers.
This course of action was met by quite a bit of disapproval at the time, so I agreed to give it a whirl for 12 months to see how we got along.
We are almost a year down the track. My parents' health and wellbeing has improved out of sight! They are eating 3 huge meals [and snacks] daily, are going out for walks at least twice a day and their depression is now minimal. They also go out on visits to musums, picnics/lunches and shopping at least 3 times a week. Their obsessions about finances and ripping up tissues, rearranging their underwear drawers, etc have alll but ceased.
In short, they are contented and happy. In the past 10 months, they have each visited the local Doctor once for very minor reasons.
The purpose of the CPN's visit on Thursday was to inform me that they had grave concerns for my parents' welfare. Problems they cited were, personal hygiene; lack of activities; being left alone for long periods of time and that the house was 'filthy'.
My parents are washed from top to toe twice a day; the house is vacuumed and cleaned at least 3 times a week; we do at least two loads of washing every day and my parents were out on a market trip when they arrived. The criticism was then qualified as occurring when I am overseas, which was a clever bit of undermining.........
I also spoke to the Estate Managers here. They come into the bungalow and carry out routine maintenance several times a month and check the electricity readings every month. They stated that the house is ALWAYS in immaculate condition and my parents look well dressed, well fed and fresh. They have stated that they are quite happy to write a letter to this effect.
Unfortunately for the CPN's, they didn't realised that the Consultant Psychiatrist had visited us 3 weeks ago. So much for communication within their department... During his visit, he told me that he was absolutely delighted with the way things were running and was amazed at my parents' health and current mental state - which is all down to the care that they have received from Glyn and Carole.
I spoke to our carers about this and they were understandably as angry as I.
My question is - where do I go with this? I am simply furious that an attempt has been made to undermine my confidence in the carers and that they are being totally wrongly accused of neglect. Nothing could be further from the truth!
I have so far written a fairly stringent letter to the CPN's. Can I approach a higher authority and if so, to whom should I complain?
Advice please?
Many thanks, Jude
I haven't been able to post this whinge before now, because I was absolutely LIVID.
On Thursday afternoon I had an impromtu visit from our local CPN's. Over the years they have been quite helpful on an ad hoc visiting basis - once every 3/4 months or so for 15 minutes.
When my parents were due to move from close care accommodation last year, they strongly urged me to place my parents in Nursing Homes, as they felt I wouldn't be able to cope ALONE with two demented oldies. A fair enough comment. At that point I was investigating Homes, but ultimately rejected this option because my parents would have been separated. Ultimately, I rented a bungalow and enlisted the aid of two carers.
This course of action was met by quite a bit of disapproval at the time, so I agreed to give it a whirl for 12 months to see how we got along.
We are almost a year down the track. My parents' health and wellbeing has improved out of sight! They are eating 3 huge meals [and snacks] daily, are going out for walks at least twice a day and their depression is now minimal. They also go out on visits to musums, picnics/lunches and shopping at least 3 times a week. Their obsessions about finances and ripping up tissues, rearranging their underwear drawers, etc have alll but ceased.
In short, they are contented and happy. In the past 10 months, they have each visited the local Doctor once for very minor reasons.
The purpose of the CPN's visit on Thursday was to inform me that they had grave concerns for my parents' welfare. Problems they cited were, personal hygiene; lack of activities; being left alone for long periods of time and that the house was 'filthy'.
My parents are washed from top to toe twice a day; the house is vacuumed and cleaned at least 3 times a week; we do at least two loads of washing every day and my parents were out on a market trip when they arrived. The criticism was then qualified as occurring when I am overseas, which was a clever bit of undermining.........
I also spoke to the Estate Managers here. They come into the bungalow and carry out routine maintenance several times a month and check the electricity readings every month. They stated that the house is ALWAYS in immaculate condition and my parents look well dressed, well fed and fresh. They have stated that they are quite happy to write a letter to this effect.
Unfortunately for the CPN's, they didn't realised that the Consultant Psychiatrist had visited us 3 weeks ago. So much for communication within their department... During his visit, he told me that he was absolutely delighted with the way things were running and was amazed at my parents' health and current mental state - which is all down to the care that they have received from Glyn and Carole.
I spoke to our carers about this and they were understandably as angry as I.
My question is - where do I go with this? I am simply furious that an attempt has been made to undermine my confidence in the carers and that they are being totally wrongly accused of neglect. Nothing could be further from the truth!
I have so far written a fairly stringent letter to the CPN's. Can I approach a higher authority and if so, to whom should I complain?
Advice please?
Many thanks, Jude