Hospital " care"

[Chase my tail]

I to like some other posts NEVER want my Mother be admitted to hospital again , and would do my best to prevent this but this is sometimes impossible . I will always now insist on staying with her , in fact for procedures I just say I AM going in with her , having to keep explaining that she has Dementia in front of her is not acceptable . I think the person with Dementia and their Carers are in a really difficult place without the so called ' caring profession ' giving us more stress . I have worked in care for years and I am disgusted with some of the care I have seen over the years . The good nurses are wonderful and are there but overshadowed by the uncaring ones . To discuss a patient in a negative way in front of them and carers is so bad ! To think threatening to bring Security would lesson the situation is ridiculous .
It's not only people with dementia , the ward my mother was on the care for the other elderly patients the care was not good .
Unfortunately I didn't put an official complaint in we were just shattered and after discharge this didn't ease up . My Mother is still early / middle stage and it was a traumatic time so I can only imagine what it a hospital stay would be like when things are worse
This is a situation that needs sorting .
I think when we saw the Consultant and said we were not happy with Mothers care , we should have been asked if we wished to officially complain .

 

[Izzy]

Maggie, Diane69 and others your stories makes me want to scream. When my husband was in hospital I insisted that either myself or his carer was by his bedside from 9am to 8pm. I left him overnight but was uneasy about this. There was a butterfly scheme in place but being there throughout the day I could see that nobody read bus All About Me book unless I took it down and showed it to someone. I could hear the way the professionals talked to other patients and it was clear that many of me had no understanding of dementia. I was happy with the care my husband received but I was able to be there most of he time to ensure he was treated properly. I think the staff were doing sir best but maybe their best wasn't really enough where dementia was concerned.

Maggie I hope your husband is settled now he's back in the home.

 

[Maggie42]

Hi Everyone,
Yes I have spoken to the hospital: nothing can put right about what happened last week, but hopefully it can be prevented from happening again. I was contacted today and they are going to look into what occurred and then devise a plan for the future. Hopefully this will benefit other dementia patients as well.
When they have sorted everything out they are going to set up a meeting to discuss this with me and will arrange, at my request, for me to look round one of the dementia friendly wards they have at another hospital within the Trust. I believe they plan more of these...I will keep you all updated.
Kindest regards and thanks for the new posts, it is clearly an issue that needs discussing.
Maggie

 

[Chase my tail]

As said by Annie in previous post , We do need to complain if things are not right I didn't for lots of reasons but as it's highly likely my Mother could need hospital care in the future ( can't even think about that ) we really need better care nothing can improve unless the hospitals know what they are doing wrong and if they keep getting complaints they have to listen ,when the hospitals are inspected OFFICIAL complaints are looked at , no good only mentioning to staff on the ward . They need to realise carers of people with Dementia are not going to accept care which is so bad we don't want to have them in hospital , that in itself could lead to a lack of care .
I think we have a ' Duty of Care ' to our Loved ones who have Dementia to do this ,hopefully this will change things
We Also need to praise and give positive comments when care is given in Hospitals as there's some very good care .
If hospitals made it easier with a comment section / form on your hospital stay which patients were invited to fill in after a stay in hospital you could put positive / negative comments on and wouldn't feel you were complaining.

 

[truth24]

I have come to realise that if people haven't had experience with dementia, perhaps in their families or as carers, that, however sympathetic they may be, they have no concept of how to deal with it. They may think they know but can't possibly. That's why I have thought on many occasions that all medical staff, GPs included, should have an obligatory period of training in dementia homes to gain experience in what really happens rather than what they think happens. They may be able to deal with patients better then.

Sent from my GT-N5110

 

[Chase my tail]

Truth 24 I think you have a very valid point . You can't begin to know how to communicate and treat a person with dementia without understanding , I have most of my adult life worked as a nurse , a carer , have looked after people with various different needs have quite a bit of experience .
Then Dementia came along and it was a really massive learning curve for me lots of reading on the Alzheimers website , books talking to people etc , we do expect people to be able to understand with possibly little or no training but I agree that something should be done to educate them , although if they listened to the carer who knows & understands them that could be a start in gaining insight into the ' World the person with Dementia ' is in and how best to care for them in the way they should be
Communication is vital , unfortunately this sometimes doesn't happen on a hospital ward