Well yesterday I met with the SW at dads care home to review his care plan and to go through the CHC check list, to see if she can refer him for the proper review.
The review went OK, based on the evidence and the ABC scores dad has triggered a referral, which has to be done within 28 days. However, since dad has been in this new care home, which has now been 5 weeks and his medication has been changed to Risperidone he has become a changed man and according to his file there is now not as much evidence of his challenging behaviour. Yes this is good, but then not so good if you are trying to get a NHS CHC funding.
It appears that the Risperidone is making him a lot more sleepy so he’s not been has challenging, although he still has his moments. I have noticed this too because over the past week each time I have visited which is normally in the morning, dad has been asleep in a chair and when he wakes he just nods off again and he’s become very quiet, even the staff have said he sleeps a lot more now. I am now thinking this can only be a side effect of the medication as he wasn’t like this before, so you solve one problem, but then it causes another, unless you think being asleep most of the time is good.
The SW is now worried that if this continues he may get turned down for the funding when the proper review is carried out. The staff seem happy with the medication and don’t think it needs reviewing. She is also worried that the Care home staff are not actually writing down every challenging incident in his file, because for them as they are more able to cope it’s not such a big issue, we were told dad is always trying to break the window locks and even asked for something to cut them with, but this wasn’t in his file. She has told them they must write every incident down.
Saying all this I did actually witness dad in an extremely agitated state just after the SW left, typical! Dad appeared to be very confused and agitated, he was walking around the lounge removing all the cushions and seat pads from the chairs, opening cupboards and throwing out the contents, trying to clean the floor with his hands, he didn’t know who I was, he was swearing and shouting, trying to break the window locks, he pushed me out of the way, then went to the main doors and was trying to open them, but as they wouldn’t open, he was trying to break them whilst still swearing and shouting. And whilst all this was happening he was being watched by 2 laughing Agency staff who were quite literally doing nothing and probably would not even think to record what was happening in his file, even though this is evidence that dad still has issues, which makes me question how many other things have been omitted. I went and told the nurse about this and he had the audacity to say dad does seem to do this more in the afternoons even though there was no written evidence to show this in his file, you can imagine I wasn’t very happy and I have informed the SW, so she will speak to them too.
Dad is now wearing pull ups and seems to have accepted them quite well, although he still has accidents.
I also went down to dads house again yesterday, I am slowly sorting and bin bagging things up. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned before, that dad had about 3 buying and hiding obsessions whilst he lived at home. One was chocolate, another was disposable razors and the last one was umbrellas. I am finding less chocolate hidden away thankfully, but I’m still discovering new hiding places for the disposable razors and umbrellas. I have now found 23 umbrellas, mostly brand new, I’ve lost count how many razors it is, as they just go in the bin now.