I don't know how you would plan to fund this, but if she can self fund there shouldn't be a problem with finding a care home with a placement. The lack of availability is usually for local authority funded placements.
Help with getting my aunt into a care home
- Thread starter Isabella42
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I don't know how you would plan to fund this, but if she can self fund there shouldn't be a problem with finding a care home with a placement. The lack of availability is usually for local authority funded placements.
She can self-fund and we could do deferred payments until the deputyship is through but no care home is willing to take her unless there has been a deprivation of liberty assessment carried out first. The social worker is refusing to do this and says we can do this privately but there is no mechanism for doing this as depriving someone of their liberty is a power of the state only.
The care home here is saying they can't take her unless there a deprivation of liberty decision in place they cannot legally hold her there.
There must have been a misunderstanding. The care home requests the DoLS when the person moves there, not beforehand. You cannot do a DoLS when the person is still living at home, it only applies once the person is living in a care home setting.
(My mother has been in a care home now for two years, and she is still waiting for her DoLS, it has been requested but social services haven't yet done it - this is quite common because there is a huge backlog. My mother is perfectly happy and doesn't want to leave, so it doesn't matter.)
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-s...MI9o7x6ZGu5wIVS7DtCh15rQsyEAAYAiAAEgI0cfD_BwE
(My mother has been in a care home now for two years, and she is still waiting for her DoLS, it has been requested but social services haven't yet done it - this is quite common because there is a huge backlog. My mother is perfectly happy and doesn't want to leave, so it doesn't matter.)
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-s...MI9o7x6ZGu5wIVS7DtCh15rQsyEAAYAiAAEgI0cfD_BwE
It seems that the issue here is whether your Aunt has the mental capacity to decide where to live in relation to her safety. If she is deemed to have mental capacity in relation to this, and doesn't want to go into a care home, then she can't be forced to go. As per the link that Sirena has provided, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (Dols) only applies to someone who has lost mental capacity: 'The person is under continuous supervision and control and is not free to leave, and the person lacks capacity to consent to these arrangements.’
So the care home is right in that if your Aunt doesn't want to be in to their home then they have no legal right to keep her there unless a Dols is in place, however the Dols couldn't be put in place until she is deemed to have lost mental capacity. You need to get a mental capacity assessment first before there is any consideration of a Dols, which can’t be put in place until your Aunt is somewhere where she is not free leave (like a hospital or care home).
I think the confusion is with regards to what the social worker has/hasn't said. They are unwilling to decide on your Aunt's mental capacity (other than in relation to financial matters) and really this should be undertaken by someone who is knowledgeable about the process. As has been suggested earlier in this thread by Tragicuglyducky, you could request an independent assessment of capacity and pay for this privately. GP’s can be reluctant to do this but you could try an Independent Mental Capacity Advocate: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-mental-capacity-advocates
