Well, Amber, 'care home' was never 'suggested' by SS - we were not given an option. Perhaps the SS is appropriately named!!
Foolishly, we had agreed to an 'assessment unit' assessment, insisting that the assessment should be of all the medical needs, not only the dementia. That was agreed by the SS, and by the MDTeam.
But then, the SS and the MDTeam decided that it would have to be care home or nothing, for the simple reason that the previous 'extra-care sheltered housing' could not handle someone who wandered twice only (in less than one year) from that housing, desperate to "go home", and once only (in less than one year) had refused to allow support workers to enter the flat. Other medical problems - not the dementia - had increased during that year, which is why the need for 'assessment' of all medical needs was requested by us.
The SS had recommended the 'extra-care sheltered housing' a mere 6 months after the dementia took hold with a medium vengeance, so we naively trusted that it was suitable for a person living on their own but living with with dementia. Not so, SS, not so.
We expected the support workers would have some ability to encourage, to work with, to persuade gently, and to engage with someone with dementia - not so. Hardly surprising - we had no idea then that those support workers were all 'temporary agency recruits'. With no long-term loyalties to either the agency employing them, nor to the Domiciliary Care Agency receiving them via the other agency, and certainly not to the person they were supposed to be supporting. We had asked all the sensible questions about recruitment, staff remaining in post, permanent/semi staff - but we were told untruths. The support workers were the equivalent of casual labour.
So, the SS and the MDT held an otherwise gentle person with dementia in their 'assessment unit' for a total of 4 months, while they waited for the waiting list to shorten, and there was nothing we, family, could do to change the situation, even though it was a voluntary admission. Volunteered by family, not by the person with dementia. So much for permission being required from the sufferer.
So not suggested by SS - merely imposed by devious means by SS and the MDTeam.
To this day, we still have no idea why. But we're working on it. One day we will understand.
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