Why fix something that isnt broken!

[Lauren]

So we had our social services support worker and a district nurse come round today to assess mum to see if she is eligible for NHS support/ payments/ care instead of our local county council!

She obviously passed as she she in such need for care and cant do anything herself!
Therefore they said her case will be put to the board!
The only thing is, is that at the moment we have direct payments from the local county council and have our own private carers coming in looking after mum because lets face it agency workers arent always great!
They are just fantastic with mum and we have a special car for her wheel care so they can take her out every day!!

With the NHS they will provide agency carers and only for morning and evenings and 3 afternoons of social interaction! Which is just not what we want for mum and it means that dad would have to quit work!! We currently have the carers 9-3 monday to fri!!

I was wondering if anyone else had this problem and whether all the councils were pressuring for these silly changes for there money cuts which just dont quite match up to the patients needs!!

Its unacceptable!!

Sorry for the moanxxx

 

[lin1]

Hello
Sorry I have no experience with this as mum was self funding

I agree with you. If alls working well why alter it ,
In my view its todo with what department pays

Hope others can here help you with this ,as it seems a terrible backward step for you all.

 

[Winnie Kjaer]

Hello Lauren,
Yes I tend to agree with you in the main. My husband also receives NHS continued healthcare and I am very grateful for that but they do not cover every need. I still have to pay for sitters myself except for the first 6 hours.

I went to a support group yesterday where the lady who did my husbands application was giving a presentation and she did so wellin explaining the different areas without it getting too political.

The way she explained it was that they have to meet the clients needs but budgets very much come in to it as they just do not have unlimited funds. If they had to cover all ours/clients "social needs" as well as the patients healthcare needs half the clients receiving funding would not be funded.

She said they receive 16 applications a day for East Devon alone so one can easily imagine how many are received throughout the whole of our country.

Just for the record for anyone else reading this the two things she did stress were

Family and main carer should always be involved when doing the assessment and should at least alwlays be asked. We have a right.

If the application is unsuccessful you can re-apply no timescale is given but it is better to appeal as you have a chance to attend yourself.She says 30% are granted at the appeal.

She also said that many of her clients who have qualified are dementia sufferers and the domains to look at are mainly, bahaviour (agression, anxiety or in danger to self or others), incontinence, cognitive level and anything else which may be difficult for anyone else apart from the main carer to deal with. She said a lot of carers are coping with things they should not have to and tend to play the issues down when being interviewed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can see why you feel you have a better deal now and wish you luck in maintaining this level of support.

Hope this helps.

 

[TinaT]

Tell them

'Thank you very much but we are happy with what we are already getting'.

I've never heard of being forced to accept a different package to one which already suits your family.

xxTinaT

 

[bethan]

Hello Lauren

The rules around what is continuing health care and what is social care are complex, but if your mum has reached the point where her needs are deemed health needs then social services isnt legally allowed to provide the care or direct payment.

Some areas are piloting a direct payment for NHS care for people with long term conditions, dont know if this applies in your area.

It is also sometimes possible for a joint package - NHS provide some of the care and social services provide other parts.

Most of the information on the web is about people who want continuing health care rather than social care, as if they own a house or have savings above £23,000 then the care ( or direct payment) is means tested whereas NHS care is free.

I know this isn't what you want to hear, but there may be some threads on here about this that can help

Best wishes
Beth

 

[mowood]

Hi Lauren

My mum gets NHS continuing care funding and I care for her at home. At first we struggled with the meagre amount of care the PCT provided and it wasn't possible to keep mum safe. We looked up all the legislation and fought our corner and after MUCH argument, we got care (albeit from an agency) 24/7. The PCT tried to argue that mum could go into a 'care' home and have her needs met (it would have been cheaper) but we challenged it as not in mum's best interests and refused their suggestion.

The agency is rubbish but we've insisted on the same care assistants all the time and they've got to know mum over the months. With my input and a great deal of support from my husband, we just about manage. Our area is not one where they are piloting the direct payment scheme.

The legislation says that anyone who qualifies for NHS continuing care should have ALL costs met by the PCT. That actually includes laundry and in some circumstances help with heating bills.

If we all claimed what we were entitled to it would give them something to think about.

I hope you can get something sorted out that meets the needs of all your family. Best of luck.

 

[Saffie]

I thought that continuing Health Care was for those who needed hospital care but because of bed shortage, had to move to a nursing home. This is what I was given to believe by staff in my husband's hospital but is obviously not so, from your coments. My husband was turned down even though the Dr's said he should receive it but NHS said they would pay for hime to be in a nursing home for 6 weeks and then re-assess.This isn't the same as an appeal so am not sure where we stand. Wish he could get it as it would mean I didn't have to become a Deputy, which is my main source of worry at the moment. Along with all the other worries of course!

 

[sue38]

This factsheet from Age UK is an excellent starting guide to Continuing Care

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/E... September 2010 - AM067 - AM069.pdf?dtrk=true