Please help - 2 weeks to find a care home

[beebee7]

Good morning
Short summery of my situation and Mum's.
I live in Switzerland and have a brother near London. Mum was sectioned (2) almost 5 weeks ago, taken to mental clinic and moved onto DoLS, The future care plan meeting was yesterday, which my brother attended and he was told she would be discharged in 2 weeks. As Mum owns her own home (but has no funds apart from the house to speak of) the representatives of the council practically washed their hands of finding somewhere for Mum.
We had a traumatic experience with my Dad who was in a care home for Alzheimer's patients and was admitted to hospital in a dehydrated state and died 3 weeks later. Because the home was under police investigation following suspicious deaths they placed an autopsy order on my Dad. It was horrible for everyone concerned. For this reason my brother said they he would not be pushed into finding a home for Mum which she/we wouldn't like and then having to move her to another one.
I thought somebody who had been in hospital came under the Continuing Care scheme of 6 weeks to give them time to readjust from having gone through a perhaps "stressful" experience.
Does this not include finding somewhere for that person regardless of whether they are self-funding or not.

I'm trying to take some of the workload off my brother because I can't do that much resulting from where I live.

But, please, where do I start? Do the homes ask in what condition the future resident is?
I will be getting a transcript of the meeting yesterday but who knows when that will come. I hope to get some info out of that concerning the actual place where Mum's Alzheimer's is right now. But who knows when we'll get that transcript. And the days are ticking away. If we can't find a home, what will the clinic/care workers, council do?
I appreciate the bed is needed and will do my best.
But, I'm sort of stumbling right now.
thank you for your time
brenda

 

[BeckyJan]

Answering your last question, before a Residential or Nursing Home take your mother they will need to assess her themselves to make sure they meet her needs. The mental healthy consultant/hospital consultant and nursing staff should help with that assessment.

In no way can your mother be left high and dry without somewhere to live. The Social Worker should be taking some responsibility. However I suggest you ring the Alzheimer's Society helpline who will guide you through what to do next, especially as you can explain the area and the financial situation.

Their details are here:
http://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/faq.php?faq=resources#faq_resources_helpline

It would be good to hear how you get on.

 

[Saffie]

This must be very worrying for you, living such a distance away.
Could you possibly find a week or so to come here to help your brother in sorting out a home for your mother? It would make you both happier about the choice I'm sure.
I took ages to find one for my husband so know what an ordeal it is.

Firstly, Continuing Care ( not to be confused with Continuing Health Care) is usually given for 6 weeks after an operation or treatment to those having to return home whilst recovering. Not for those going into a care/nursing home where they will receive care anyway.

As for homes asking in what state a future resident is in, rest assured that not only do they ask but they carry out an assessment to see whether the home can satisfy the needs of that resident. Only somewhere that think they will be able to deliver will accept your mother.
However, that doesn't mean that it would necessarily be the home you would have chosen so personal preference does come into it but of course cannot do so without relatives' input.

Whether self-funding or not, the SW in the hospital should have a list of homes which she could give to your brother. She could also arrange a financial assessment as it sounds as if LA input might be necessary regarding fees until your mother's home is sold. That is unless her savings are above the upper level of LA contribution though I think I recall you saying that you wanted to sort out paying for the fees yourself. In which case, the the LA have no interest or involvement but could still help.

As to what happens if nothing is done about finding a home by relatives, I assume the patient will be placed where there is a vacancy in a home that will accept her. It must be what happens to those who have no relatives.

 

[beebee7]

Answering your last question, before a Residential or Nursing Home take your mother they will need to assess her themselves to make sure they meet her needs. The mental healthy consultant/hospital consultant and nursing staff should help with that assessment.

In no way can your mother be left high and dry without somewhere to live. The Social Worker should be taking some responsibility. However I suggest you ring the Alzheimer's Society helpline who will guide you through what to do next, especially as you can explain the area and the financial situation.

Their details are here:
http://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/faq.php?faq=resources#faq_resources_helpline

It would be good to hear how you get on.

I will keep you posted. Thank you

 

[beebee7]

This must be very worrying for you, living such a distance away.
Could you possibly find a week or so to come here to help your brother in sorting out a home for your mother? It would make you both happier about the choice I'm sure.
I took ages to find one for my husband so know what an ordeal it is.

Firstly, Continuing Care ( not to be confused with Continuing Health Care) is usually given for 6 weeks after an operation or treatment to those having to return home whilst recovering. Not for those going into a care/nursing home where they will receive care anyway.

As for homes asking in what state a future resident is in, rest assured that not only do they ask but they carry out an assessment to see whether the home can satisfy the needs of that resident. Only somewhere that think they will be able to deliver will accept your mother.
However, that doesn't mean that it would necessarily be the home you would have chosen so personal preference does come into it but of course cannot do so without relatives' input.

Whether self-funding or not, the SW in the hospital should have a list of homes which she could give to your brother. She could also arrange a financial assessment as it sounds as if LA input might be necessary regarding fees until your mother's home is sold. That is unless her savings are above the upper level of LA contribution though I think I recall you saying that you wanted to sort out paying for the fees yourself. In which case, the the LA have no interest or involvement but could still help.

As to what happens if nothing is done about finding a home by relatives, I assume the patient will be placed where there is a vacancy in a home that will accept her. It must be what happens to those who have no relatives.

Hi Saffie

I think I will have to come over to help my brother out.
I'm just trying to understand how a care home will assess my Mum themselves. Where Mum now is is approx. 60 miles from where we will be looking for a CH (to be closer to my brother). What are the logistics of their own assessment. Would we have to take Mum there (maybe numerous times until we find the "right" place or do the people from the CH come to the clinic where Mum is right now?

Thank you for your help

 

[nitram]

I would guess that any prospective care home working at that distance would rely heavily on medical reports

I would also expect that the clinic your mum is currently in would provide an ongoing care plan as part of their discharge procedure.This plan would help the care home in their decision.

Several placements also have a trial period just in case a new resident is found to be unsuitable.

 

[Witzend]

Hi Saffie

I think I will have to come over to help my brother out.
I'm just trying to understand how a care home will assess my Mum themselves. Where Mum now is is approx. 60 miles from where we will be looking for a CH (to be closer to my brother). What are the logistics of their own assessment. Would we have to take Mum there (maybe numerous times until we find the "right" place or do the people from the CH come to the clinic where Mum is right now?

Thank you for your help

My mother's CH was also 60 miles from where she lived (it was close to me). It is over 8 years ago now so memory not certain, but I am pretty sure someone from the CH came for an 'informal chat'. We certainly did not take her to them - it would have very difficult, since for quite a while she had been very reluctant to leave the house at all.

 

[Pickles53]

Hi Saffie

I think I will have to come over to help my brother out.
I'm just trying to understand how a care home will assess my Mum themselves. Where Mum now is is approx. 60 miles from where we will be looking for a CH (to be closer to my brother). What are the logistics of their own assessment. Would we have to take Mum there (maybe numerous times until we find the "right" place or do the people from the CH come to the clinic where Mum is right now?

Thank you for your help

This was our situation and the managers of some of our proposed homes were more helpful than others. Some were willing to arrange for mum to visit for a day. Not sure if this would be feasible for your mum. We used a wheelchair accessible taxi for a journey of about 80 miles (one way) and the cost was quite reasonable. Certainly a worthwhile investment for your first choice. One or two homes were also willing to have the manager travel to visit mum. No relatives lived near mum's home so it was clear from the outset that the home would need to be near me.

I think these questions should be asked as part of the short listing process; in mum's case as she was self-funding this was all managed without any input from SS at all, though mum did have a CPN who she saw occasionally and some OT support. She was having 2x daily care visits so the agency would have been the only other source of reports on mum and I didn't think this would enough information for the home to make an informed assessment.

 

[Saffie]

I would also expect that the clinic your mum is currently in would provide an ongoing care plan as part of their discharge procedure.This plan would help the care home in their decision.

Certainly a report went with my husband to the nursing home he went to straight from hospital. However, he was also assessed by the head nurse of the home too in the hospital. A couple of other assessments were not taken up, one because they were not geared for dementia despite them saying they were when I visited and the other because I declined it due to their attitude towards finances!

I'm sure the finding of a home some distance from the hospital must happen a lot, so you should have reassurance on that score from the people involved.
Best of luck with this.