New member

[frenchie50]

A little introduction.
I live in France but my mother is in a care home in the uk, it is registered as a provider for dementia care. She has been there for 3 yrs . I have a brother and sister and daughter in the uk who visit mum weekly. The home has undergone many changes and lots of the original staff have left. We have been very concerned about the lack of care and have brought it to the attention of the management. I was over last week and visited every day, by the end of the week mum was still in the same dirty clothes and smelt. I again went to notify the manager who went very defensive on me and said mum was aggressive ! I can believe this. What I need to find out is the standard of acceptable care, is it normal to leave somebody this long in the same clothes? They mentioned something to my brother about skin breach ?? Her hair hadn't been washed for nearly two weeks because the hairdresser was on holiday !! I would be really grateful if any body could point me I the right direction to shed some light on these issues. Many thanks to you all in advance

 

[Grannie G]

If you are out of the country and unable to monitor your mother`s care, I would report this concern to the CQC.

No one should be left in this state , however aggressive and the home should be able to tell you what steps they are taking to help your mother comply.

http://www.cqc.org.uk

Share your experience

Speak up and tell us on 03000 61 61 61, enquiries@cqc.org.uk, or our online form. You can also share your experience of a service with us

http://www.cqc.org.uk/share-your-experience-finder

 

[canary]

Sometimes there is a reason for people being left in the same clothes, but I say this with caution as generally this should not happen. I say this because mum had a cataract operation recently and was so confused afterwards that the staff decided not to worry about her being in the same clothes for a couple of days. This sort of thing is the exception though, the staff in a dedicated dementia unit should know techniques to get them to wash/shower/bathe and change their clothes regularly.

If there have been a lot of staff changes recently perhaps the standards are going down. The home should have had a CQC inspection - you can find the results on this site - http://www.cqc.org.uk/content/inspection-reports
If you put the name and town/city into the search keywords box you should be able to look up when the last inspection was and what it was like.

I get the feeling that your siblings are unhappy about this too. If this continues and you get no proper explanation you may wish to start looking for an alternative.