New to this site and hoping for advice

marts1711

Registered User
Oct 25, 2014
44
0
Hi.
My father, who has vascular dementia among numerous other health issues, had been in residential care for the past 10 weeks. Yesterday he was moved to a nursing home in the Stockport CCG district.
My main question concerns NHS Continuing Health Care.
Whilst in the residential home CHC did some kind of assessment and concluded dad is eligible for FNC. I questioned this and requested that a full assessment for CHC be carried out. They agreed and have now given us a date of 26th January for the assessment using the Decision Support Tool to be carried out.
I am pretty much ofay with all the criteria, the 12 domains ect. I have tried to digest as much information as possible from the National Framework and the multitude of information available on the net.
My question is really aimed at anyone who may have had the assessment done for a relative and was present whilst it was being done. I know we have to go armed with as much info as possible but how do we actually convey this information??
Do we put our views forward, along with actually documented evidence as they go through each domain or do we challenge them when it has been completed??

Hope someone can help:)
 

cragmaid

Registered User
Oct 18, 2010
7,936
0
North East England
We failed in our application....however the Assessor went and had a few words with Mum then she/I/ the care worker all went to another room to go through the forms.
Good Luck, but it sounds like you might be half way there if they agreed to FNC.
Maureen
 

jaymor

Registered User
Jul 14, 2006
15,604
0
South Staffordshire
Most of the professionals involved in my husband's care whilst in an assessment unit where at the meeting and those who were not had left written word of their findings and scoring.

It took all afternoon and as every domain came up it was discussed in depth and we, the family were asked to add our thoughts and experiences and disagreements if we had any. It all went well and I felt they really did listen to us and involved us all the way through.

The end result was there was sufficient evidence to take the request to panel. Two weeks later we heard my husband had been granted CHC within an EMI nursing home. We viewed in access of 20 homes and had a short list of three we liked.

All three visited my husband and all said they would take him but only with 1:1 funded care for 24 hours a day. We were then contacted yo say he needed to be in a nursing home specialising in dementia with challenging behaviour. We found two such homes in our county with one bring just 4 miles from where we live.

As hard as it was to listen to the help and care my husband would need it made it very clear to me that the care I had given for the last 7 years was no longer robust enough and the best place for him to be would be in a suitable nursing home.
 

cold feet

Registered User
Nov 19, 2010
22
0
Essex
Like Cragmaid we failed in our application. We appealed on the grounds that her needs were being assessed based on her being cared for 24/7 in a care home, rather than her actual needs. The second application was also failed. We have given up.

Mum has had 2 assessments, both lasted at least 3 hours. I attended both, as did the care home manager. There was full discussion around each domain, and the score debated. Documentary evidence is needed to support any challenge - for instance on danger of falls we the home were asked to record mum over a period of days for how many times she tried to stand without help (she cannot stand unaided, but falls to the floor). Of course this did not happen during the period of monitoring! Mum was present for both assessments - a bit bewildered but not unduly bothered by the process.

Good luck.
 

marts1711

Registered User
Oct 25, 2014
44
0
Most of the professionals involved in my husband's care whilst in an assessment unit where at the meeting and those who were not had left written word of their findings and scoring.

It took all afternoon and as every domain came up it was discussed in depth and we, the family were asked to add our thoughts and experiences and disagreements if we had any. It all went well and I felt they really did listen to us and involved us all the way through.

The end result was there was sufficient evidence to take the request to panel. Two weeks later we heard my husband had been granted CHC within an EMI nursing home. We viewed in access of 20 homes and had a short list of three we liked.

All three visited my husband and all said they would take him but only with 1:1 funded care for 24 hours a day. We were then contacted yo say he needed to be in a nursing home specialising in dementia with challenging behaviour. We found two such homes in our county with one bring just 4 miles from where we live.

As hard as it was to listen to the help and care my husband would need it made it very clear to me that the care I had given for the last 7 years was no longer robust enough and the best place for him to be would be in a suitable nursing home.



Thanks for reply Jaymor. Not sure if I am replying correctly Not got my head around this forum yet

Dad is indeed now in an EMI nursing home and it was actually quite a painless process getting him in, it only took 5 days from saying we liked the home to them accessing him and him going in yesterday.
He has complex health issue, including a permanent indwelling catheter, heart failure, diabetes, dementia, wandering, aggression, not compliant with care. wont go to hospital for appointments. Is deaf, has cataracts, brittle nails, ulcer on leg that breaks down if not monitored.
I have to get all this down on paper somehow and that's really my problem How to do that.
 

marts1711

Registered User
Oct 25, 2014
44
0
If anyone has any thoughts on how we should collate and present our relevant info I would really appreciate it.


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Miss shiraz

Registered User
Dec 24, 2014
79
0
Midlands
I haven't had to do this but if i had to try to document all the info on his ailments i would try and put it in table or spreadsheet (sad i know...)
List the ailments on left, top to bottom, then have separate columns across top for info such as the occurrence (how often and last time ), treatment plan... drugs etc, impact on his life, etc... i think as you start it will develop and some columns may not be applicable to all ailments.
Hope this makes sense and good luck
 

magic800

Registered User
Dec 11, 2014
17
0
I am not sure if this will help you but my father had cancer and wanted to be sent home rather than stay in hospital. We had to have one of these assessments so that he could have cnc at home. I made notes just on a note pad on my concerns i.e neglecting his personal care, difficult behaviour, refusing medication, not eating. The ward sister had written assessments from other professionals occupational therapists, staff from the ward and the doctor. I then sat with the sister who had been nursing him for the previous 6 weeks and a social worker filling in the forms step by step and at each point they asked me for my input. I was worried about him coming home as I was not sure I would be able to cope looking after him with working full time, in a very demanding job at that time. It took around 3 hours but I felt it was time well spent as we got the decision quite soon and dad got his wish. Even though he only lived for 6 months he was happy and I took comfort from thinking I had done all I could to give him what he wanted. Write everything down it may take a few attempts and some things may seem not that important but you can never have too much information. Good luck.
 

marts1711

Registered User
Oct 25, 2014
44
0
Thanks to everyone for their comments. At least I now know that it takes quite a few hours to go through it all. I think I will fill out the DST myself and take it along. It's going to be a fight but if we don't try we will never know.


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