Hello everyone
About a year ago my mum was in hospital and recovered. She had an OT assessment and they concluded that she required a profiling bed permanently and various other bits and pieces. She has vascular dementia, has been deemed extremely frail by the geriatric care team (although she looks hale and hearty her dementia has affected her mobility), and her cognitive function is pretty poor (although you can have a chat with her where she appears okay).
My mum lives with me. Today a district nurse came round as they do every few months, chatted for ten minutes, we agreed everything was okay, and she left. Later on she phoned and told me my mum needed an assessment because the only reason district nurses were coming round every three months was because my mum had a profiling bed. She suggested I could bring down a bed from upstairs to replace the profiling bed. She said she'd be in touch to arrange this assessment.
Reeling from this, a few hours later I phoned the district nursing team and asked them about this assessment. The woman I spoke to said it wasn't a physical assessment, just a chat. I asked why there was an assessment at all when the OT team had carried out a physical assessment and deemed it necessary for my mum to have one permanently. She told me she knew nothing about my mum so couldn't answer. But if my mum had improved since coming out of hospital that would be a reason. (I laughed when she said that. My mum's in decline, she's not suddenly going to be able to be better!) She also said if they decided there wasn't a nursing need they'd remove the bed.
I'm worried! Anything to do with my mum becomes stressful very quickly, and I would say the vast majority of medical professionals just want my mum to be safe and well looked after, and seeing that's the case are very happy everything's ticking along.
What is nursing need? Mum got the bed because she's very unsteady, gets easily confused, and had had falls during the night at home, also because I have to dress and undress her and to help me (e.g. save my back) I could raise the bed to do her shoes and tights. Also sometimes, I raise the head bit of the bed to help Mum out of bed if she hasn't got the strength.
Is this what they mean by nursing need? They are phoning me back tomorrow for further chat about it. But I feel I'm going to phone OT on Monday and involve them, because I don't think a frail lady in her 90s should have her bed whipped away because one person saw her for ten minutes and thought she didn't really need it.
In my mind, the next step would be for a hoist (and this was very briefly mentioned by OT a while ago) because at some point my mum won't be able to do her transfers (she doesn't walk), not to have things taken away.
I'm really upset by this, and it's now churning round my mind as to what might happen.
Thanks for reading.
About a year ago my mum was in hospital and recovered. She had an OT assessment and they concluded that she required a profiling bed permanently and various other bits and pieces. She has vascular dementia, has been deemed extremely frail by the geriatric care team (although she looks hale and hearty her dementia has affected her mobility), and her cognitive function is pretty poor (although you can have a chat with her where she appears okay).
My mum lives with me. Today a district nurse came round as they do every few months, chatted for ten minutes, we agreed everything was okay, and she left. Later on she phoned and told me my mum needed an assessment because the only reason district nurses were coming round every three months was because my mum had a profiling bed. She suggested I could bring down a bed from upstairs to replace the profiling bed. She said she'd be in touch to arrange this assessment.
Reeling from this, a few hours later I phoned the district nursing team and asked them about this assessment. The woman I spoke to said it wasn't a physical assessment, just a chat. I asked why there was an assessment at all when the OT team had carried out a physical assessment and deemed it necessary for my mum to have one permanently. She told me she knew nothing about my mum so couldn't answer. But if my mum had improved since coming out of hospital that would be a reason. (I laughed when she said that. My mum's in decline, she's not suddenly going to be able to be better!) She also said if they decided there wasn't a nursing need they'd remove the bed.
I'm worried! Anything to do with my mum becomes stressful very quickly, and I would say the vast majority of medical professionals just want my mum to be safe and well looked after, and seeing that's the case are very happy everything's ticking along.
What is nursing need? Mum got the bed because she's very unsteady, gets easily confused, and had had falls during the night at home, also because I have to dress and undress her and to help me (e.g. save my back) I could raise the bed to do her shoes and tights. Also sometimes, I raise the head bit of the bed to help Mum out of bed if she hasn't got the strength.
Is this what they mean by nursing need? They are phoning me back tomorrow for further chat about it. But I feel I'm going to phone OT on Monday and involve them, because I don't think a frail lady in her 90s should have her bed whipped away because one person saw her for ten minutes and thought she didn't really need it.
In my mind, the next step would be for a hoist (and this was very briefly mentioned by OT a while ago) because at some point my mum won't be able to do her transfers (she doesn't walk), not to have things taken away.
I'm really upset by this, and it's now churning round my mind as to what might happen.
Thanks for reading.
