Dad fallen twice in care home in 2 days

Sola12

Registered User
Nov 5, 2013
2
0
S W Scotland
Hi this is my first post. My father has vascular dementia and AD. He has spent the past 7 weeks in hospital after having a heart attack and bleeding on the brain. He was in a dreadful state and we were told that he only had days to live. A place came up in a care home last week and he moved in on Thursday. He fell on Thursday evening and has fallen again this evening (Saturday). The care home don't seem to have had a proper hand over from the hospital as they are asking questions that I don't know the answers to. I 'm worried that he will go down hill in the care home as he was on one to one care at the hospital. Am I expecting too much ? My mother also has AD they were both diagnosed 3 years ago but my dad is more advanced than my mum. The hospital put my dad on Quetiapine (spelling?) has anyone had any experience of this some web sites say that it shouldn't be used with AD. Thanks
 

Katrine

Registered User
Jan 20, 2011
2,837
0
England
Sola12, how very frightening and worrying for you. The drug you mention seems to be an anti-psychotic that can have side-effects such as drowsiness, so presumably your dad might be at increased risk of falls. Being in a new environment also increases the risk of falls because he won't have the ability to avoid hazards. I would think he needs very careful monitoring at the moment.

I wonder why your dad was discharged from hospital to a Care Home after such a serious medical episode? Why is he not in a nursing bed in a nursing home or care home? Who decided he was ready for discharge and who selected this care home for him to be transferred to?

Your dad was in hospital for a long time. There should have been a hospital assessment report produced before he was discharged and someone will have signed that report as the 'discharge officer' or 'senior discharge nurse' or similar. You won't probably have seen this, but it should exist. Get back in touch with the hospital and ask to speak to the senior person in charge of discharging long-term patients. It may not be possible to get any information from them before Monday.

There is a service in every hospital called PALS (patient liaison) and they can be very helpful too, but again probably not available at a weekend. You might also contact the hospital social worker. They hospital social worker still has a responsibility to patients up to 10 days after discharge but often they just expect to hand over to a community social worker.

Your aim is to find out what your dad was assessed as needing in the way of support (all kinds) when he left hospital. If you don't think this CH can cope it may be because these procedures have not been followed properly. Did someone from the CH come to assess your dad prior to discharge? They should have looked at all his ward notes and spoken to the hospital social worker. They should also have involved the immediate family because part of assessing your dad's best interests and needs requires information from the people who know him best.

If you feel that your dad is at serious risk of harm then you should contact your Social Services emergency number and talk things through with them without waiting to speak to other people next week. Don't be put off by soothing words about 'early days'. If your dad is going to end up back in hospital through lack of appropriate monitoring then he needs urgent re-assessment. Good luck.