Many of you will know I have had lots of little problems with mum's care over the six months that she has been in a Care Home, and I have hoped they will all go away or be resolved, but they haven't. So last week I rang the Social Worker, "Mum's" social worker, and she came round on Thursday. She was very helpful. BUT
I was stunned to find that as mum is self-funding she doesn't actually have any entitlement to support from a social worker. She is effectively "outside the state system" rather like a private patient in hospital. I was shocked.
The Social Worker asked me about mum's Care Plan. What Care Plan, I asked (some of you will know I have queried this before). Apparently if you are funded by the Local Authority, the Social Worker draws up the Care Plan, but if you are self-funded, you draw up your own! Well, I am a real expert at drawing up Care Plans, aren't I?
And if you are funded by the LA, they will review the Care Plan every six months, and arrange a meeting with the Home, themeselves and the relatives, to discuss it all. Not so if you are self-funded.
I am just shocked and stunned that my mum is left entirely to her own devices because she is saving the government £460 a week or whatever figure the LA will pay, and is entitled to no advisory support from them. This is for a lady whose husband fought in WW2, his boat was torpedoed, he spent a week drifting on a raft, his mother was notified that her youngest son, aged 19, was missing presumed dead, and his widow can't get access to a social worker!
I asked her what proportion of residents in a typical care home in the area were self-funding and was told her guess was about 10%. Is that right? Are 90% of people in care homes people who didn't own their own home? Or were clever enough not to sell it, and have rented it out instead? I think not.
What am I doing wrong?
I feel deserted by the system.
Margaret
I was stunned to find that as mum is self-funding she doesn't actually have any entitlement to support from a social worker. She is effectively "outside the state system" rather like a private patient in hospital. I was shocked.
The Social Worker asked me about mum's Care Plan. What Care Plan, I asked (some of you will know I have queried this before). Apparently if you are funded by the Local Authority, the Social Worker draws up the Care Plan, but if you are self-funded, you draw up your own! Well, I am a real expert at drawing up Care Plans, aren't I?
And if you are funded by the LA, they will review the Care Plan every six months, and arrange a meeting with the Home, themeselves and the relatives, to discuss it all. Not so if you are self-funded.
I am just shocked and stunned that my mum is left entirely to her own devices because she is saving the government £460 a week or whatever figure the LA will pay, and is entitled to no advisory support from them. This is for a lady whose husband fought in WW2, his boat was torpedoed, he spent a week drifting on a raft, his mother was notified that her youngest son, aged 19, was missing presumed dead, and his widow can't get access to a social worker!
I asked her what proportion of residents in a typical care home in the area were self-funding and was told her guess was about 10%. Is that right? Are 90% of people in care homes people who didn't own their own home? Or were clever enough not to sell it, and have rented it out instead? I think not.
What am I doing wrong?
I feel deserted by the system.
Margaret