I am new to the forum and to any forum so please excuse any mistakes. I need some advice. We live in North london and recently my mother went into emergancy respite. she is 82 with Lewy Body and I am her only living next of kin. I have a family 2 children 10 and 12 and work full time. We did everything we could to keep her in her sheltered flat but her agression displayed in Day care and her wandering prevented this as a realistic option. In May we accepted she needed 24 hour care and were working with social workers to find her a placement close to us. but they kept delaying things. See we work live and go to school and my mother lived all in less than a one mile radius. The problem was that the care homes in our area were quite nice and maybe a bit too expensive for Council funding. My mother worked hard all her life but her dementia caused her to loose her home. She has a pension etc... is about £1200 per month. Now she has been placed in a care home that frankly reeks of urine to the point all her clothes - even her tops smell so strong it is difficult being in an enclosed car with her. She is the most lucid person there and even a son of another resident told me the care home is not right for her. He didn't know anything about my concerns but walked up to me - introduced himself and told me to move her out. I am now being told that this emergancy respite placement in now permanent without a formal consultation.
I wrote a complaint letter and it is now in stage one. What are our rights? Do we have the right to deny a placement? I believe the placement is driven by economics and I have been sold a false set of good by the social worker. The ironic aspect of all this is that she was means tested before so the Council was paying up to £600 a week for full time day care and one hour a day home visits. Now she will pay the council her money and that is ok but they will only be paying £190 a week. The care home most suited for her and her Dr. supports would leave the council paying £300 a week. It is most difficult to visit and my children and my health and my mother's happiness are suffering. I was even told by the care home owner and the social worker not to visit much as it takes her out of her own little word and thus can make her more difficult to manage. Another care home manager told me my mother's human rights were in violation and I needed to seek leagal advise. We are poor what can we do?
I wrote a complaint letter and it is now in stage one. What are our rights? Do we have the right to deny a placement? I believe the placement is driven by economics and I have been sold a false set of good by the social worker. The ironic aspect of all this is that she was means tested before so the Council was paying up to £600 a week for full time day care and one hour a day home visits. Now she will pay the council her money and that is ok but they will only be paying £190 a week. The care home most suited for her and her Dr. supports would leave the council paying £300 a week. It is most difficult to visit and my children and my health and my mother's happiness are suffering. I was even told by the care home owner and the social worker not to visit much as it takes her out of her own little word and thus can make her more difficult to manage. Another care home manager told me my mother's human rights were in violation and I needed to seek leagal advise. We are poor what can we do?