Hi everyone,
My story is that my dad has dementia and now Parkinson’s. He has been cared for at home by mum who also has Parkinson’s. She has recently been diagnosed with myeloma (cancer of the blood which causes bone fractures and bone pain) mum was taken to hospital on 10th Nov as she was unable to walk at all - at this point we (my brother and I) called ss to ask for respite care. We were told as Dad has savings (approx £35000) we had to find our own. We were unable to source any so have taken turns caring for him for past 2 weeks. Mum has now been discharged home, but still unable to walk far.
Whilst looking after Dad it has become apparent how much care he needs.. he cannot wash, dress, toilet himself. He can’t remember to eat or drink and giving him his medication is a daily battle that sometimes becomes physical (from him).
We have decided that he needs residential care, and again rang ss for help finding a place, again as over threshold we were told to find it ourselves.
We have visited a few homes - none of which have availability - and have put dads name on the waiting list.
However, we are now in the position of both brother and myself of having used up all a/l, carers days etc at work and with nothing arranged for Dad. Mum is very very anxious about being on her own with him so again I rang social services - they have finally agreed to come and assess him but this won’t be till the end of next week.
So what do we do to keep him and mum safe whilst we have to work - ss whilst appearing sympathetic couldn’t advise apart from saying for us to keep looking for a care home. They also could not answer why we weren’t offered an assessment weeks ago when mum went to hosp.
Sorry for such a long post but I really feel like I’m going round and round in circles banging my head on brick walls!
My story is that my dad has dementia and now Parkinson’s. He has been cared for at home by mum who also has Parkinson’s. She has recently been diagnosed with myeloma (cancer of the blood which causes bone fractures and bone pain) mum was taken to hospital on 10th Nov as she was unable to walk at all - at this point we (my brother and I) called ss to ask for respite care. We were told as Dad has savings (approx £35000) we had to find our own. We were unable to source any so have taken turns caring for him for past 2 weeks. Mum has now been discharged home, but still unable to walk far.
Whilst looking after Dad it has become apparent how much care he needs.. he cannot wash, dress, toilet himself. He can’t remember to eat or drink and giving him his medication is a daily battle that sometimes becomes physical (from him).
We have decided that he needs residential care, and again rang ss for help finding a place, again as over threshold we were told to find it ourselves.
We have visited a few homes - none of which have availability - and have put dads name on the waiting list.
However, we are now in the position of both brother and myself of having used up all a/l, carers days etc at work and with nothing arranged for Dad. Mum is very very anxious about being on her own with him so again I rang social services - they have finally agreed to come and assess him but this won’t be till the end of next week.
So what do we do to keep him and mum safe whilst we have to work - ss whilst appearing sympathetic couldn’t advise apart from saying for us to keep looking for a care home. They also could not answer why we weren’t offered an assessment weeks ago when mum went to hosp.
Sorry for such a long post but I really feel like I’m going round and round in circles banging my head on brick walls!