Getting diagnosed and treatment in the UK

[Dayperson]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum. I'm currently living in France and my mum has been getting iller the past year, with rapid deterioration in her memory in the past few weeks. She saw the doctor this week (who speaks English) I had to prompt her and she struggled to say what pain she was having and it tested the doctors patience. He said we could not be treated in France and need to return to the UK for treatment.

How do we go about returning and what help and support are we entitled to? We currently have no connection in the UK and have no idea where the best services are for getting treated.

Is it possible that we can start to get the ball rolling so we have the support ready before our move?

 

[sistermillicent]

I think it is highly unlikely that you can get the ball rolling with support here until you arrive. You are entitled to nhs treatment as soon as you return, but you can't register with a GP without a UK address and no GP will refer your mum to any memory clinic without seeing her.
Help and support available depends on where you live, some places are good and have social workers who are on the ball, some are really slow. All are overstretched and waiting times are sometimes long.
If you are self funding, that is if your mum has savings or assets of more than about £23,000 you will most likely have to pay for any care needed. If not, you will have whatever your mum's assessment says she can have, and that will, as previously mentioned, vary from place to place, there doesn't seem to be a national standard.

Dementia care in this country is a lottery.

 

[Beate]

Is it possible that you might have misunderstood what the doctor said? There is dementia care available in France and expats should receive it too. I found an older thread about the same thing here:
http://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/showthread.php?58346-Living-in-France-with-dementia

 

[Dayperson]

Thanks for your replies, it's nice to know that I'm not on my own with this one.

Beate, thanks for the link, I got the impression that the doctor just didn't want to make the effort to help mum at all. Maybe if I find more information about which neurologists would be able to help in France, then maybe I can see if he can help us. I'm guessing that in both countries the waiting list is 6 months for dementia because I've been there myself with my epilepsy treatment.

sistermillicent, where can we find out where the best place to go for dementia care i.e. best for diagnosis? I'm sure my dad is willing to travel to anywhere in England or France for treatment if we know mum will get the best care.