Mum in Law has been given notice to quit EMI home

[swordfish58]

My Mum in Law, who is in the last stages of alzheimers and vascular dementia has been given notice to quit her room in the EMI home she has been a resident in for the last 2 years. The reason? Because the manager has carried out a generic risk assessment on all the residents for the use of bed rails and decided that ALL the residents in the 4 houses the have will not have bed rails anymore. My Mum in Law will fall out of her bed because she rolls all over it now.

The risk is any of the residents might get a limb or their head trapped in it despite the fact that the rails are covered in a well padded long plastic cover which is tied at the bottom of each rail. All the family are in disagreement with this and feel that its much more likely that she will roll off her bed onto the crashmat and possibly break a bone. She has never once put a limb through the bed rail.

They have used a generic assessment tool for her - the same one they used for the residents who are in the very early stages of dementia and, despite the family requesting a second risk assessment be carried out - a more detailed one - the manager refused and immediately put into place a 'notice to quit' order. We are all fearful that mum will deteriorate rapidly if moved now and all the carers, other than one particular mental health nurse and the home manager, who look after her are very upset that she is having to move. None of the family have POA, only a COP for financial affairs.

Any advice from anyone with any knowledge or experience of this would be welcome.

 

[fizzie]

I would speak to your local adult care safeguarding team duty desk give them a ring and ask for an email and just copy to them the info you have written to us and ask for their help.

I would also report the manager to the care quality commission complaints@cqc.org.uk. She does seem to be very inflexible in the way she is handling this situation. I am sure others will come along soon who have experienced similar and will be able to give you more help but I think it was very reasonable to request a second detailed risk assessment given the circumstances

 

[love.dad.but..]

I don't have any experience of this dad is still mobile. He is in a dementia nursing home so many residents have bed rails and are I think padded. It seems strange to me that the risk assessments are not person centred depending on each individual need and risk. Seems a bit heavy handed to apply the one size fits all in an EMI home as they must realise that if they are a true EMI dementia expertise home and an over reaction to your reasonable request in not seeking to find a solution or compromise for your mil. There are probably other residents/relatives just as baffled. Are there other aspects of your mil care they find difficult as they seem way too quick to give notice to quit!

 

[Hill Man]

I work in a hospital where many patients have dementia as well as their physical condition. Occasionally you will have a patient who is at risk of either falling out of bed or worse climbing over the bed rails and falling from a higher height.

If that really is the case the solution is simple - the patient is nursed on a bed that can be lowered to near floor level, so if they do roll off onto the crash mat they are unhurt. This story simply sounds like a care home that's unwilling to invest in the equipment or staff needed to provide care

 

[Kevinl]

As far as I've seen in the home where my wife is everyone mobile is in a low bed, without rails but with a crash mat and a pressure mat (in case they get up in the night) the bedbound, however, are in high beds with rails.
I would suspect the people who need rails are "high maintenance" residents and it's more likely a business decision as much as anything else. Care homes are a business and a lot of bedbound residents will mean more staff are needed, hence cost more.
They can use the argument "we don't think it's safe" and you'd be hard pressed to get a decision changed where the home argued this.
Risk is bad, risk should be eliminated, we're reducing risk...so they're doing the right thing, it would be hard to prove otherwise.
But as you don't have a POA then maybe social services should be sorting it out anyway, intrinsically it's not your problem, if you get my drift. Refuse to co-operate and have them take it to social services, they're the ones with the duty of care for her health, see how that goes down
K

 

[nannylondon]

Hi my husband has a bed with rails in his care home the rails are padded and the bed can be lowered he is in the later stage of dementia and if there were no rails I am sure he would fall out of bed, surely this should be assessed for each individual.