Hi everyone. My name is Peter and recently my mother was 'diagnosed' with dimentia. I say diagnosed in inverted commas because as yet this has come more from Social Services than from the medical side (my mother is currently in hospital, however it is for a urinary infection only, but social services have been insisting that she is suffering from dimentia - although I have been told that the treatment for urinary infection can actually make the patient appear to have dimentia-like symptoms? - and are unbelievably insistent upon placing her in a care home despite the fact my mother has vehemently objected to this proposal (to just about anybody who will listen - staff on the ward and even the advocate Social Services appointed had to admit witnessing this), I have ascertained she has a clear understanding of what a care home would be like, and - more importantly than anything - I have insisted repeatedly that I am prepared to move in with her and look after her needs, although admittedly with some care worker assistance (and personally I feel that if she were to be admitted to a care home it would actually curtail her life, not prolong it - she is also extremely visually impaired, is basically blind, and has had arthritis for many years and can't move around on her own so, obviously reliant upon only her hearing and possibly her sense of smell to get any bearings, imagine the kind of horror she would be likely to experience in a home with maybe 60 patients, some with obviously extremely advanced dimentia wandering around, crying out as I've even heard them do in the hospital or in all likelihood trying to touching her without her knowledge or consent?). I also feel that for someone aged almost 80 with these problems that familiarity with her environment is of tremendous importance and the flat I am insistent she returns to is where she has lived for almost 30 years predating the 'dimentia' by 29 years and the blindness by 28.
I am due to have a meeting with the staff at the hospital to discuss her long-term needs and, having spoken to the Social Services Team Leader (I also found out that not she but the person largely responsible for this insistence of dimentia or actually 'advanced dimentia' as she had put it, and for the insistence 'she can no longer make decisions for herself' and requires 24-hour care is, in fact, not an actual qualified Social Worker as she had told me, and she may even have told me she was senior, but is in reality some kind of assistant - I can't think of the actual term the Team Leader actually used but basically it's a person who becomes involved in social care cases, probably with supervision, but is not actually qualified, and so presumably is not qualified to make any judgements regarding a particular case? Anyway, it's all a huge maelstrom I'm trying to get used to but cutting a long story short I believe Social Services has told me, as the patient's next-of-kin, nothing but a pack of lies, my mother is lying in hospital with no further need to be there the medical staff have informed me other than Social Services insistence that there needs to be further discussion around her circumstances). The 'Social Worker' is also now subject of an official complaint.
It is great to discover an invaluable resource for advice and information on how to progress with this whole situation which I'm having to deal with on my own and the possibility of my mother facing the possible advancement of dimentia at some stage (I presume she must have been showing *some* signs, although she is as sharp as a pin in any discussion and with any recall and as I say this could have been the result of both old age and the drugs for the urinary infection).
If I had one question to ask at this stage it would be: in view of my experiences with Social Services so far and my being aware that the only way they could insist upon my mother having to enter a home under the current circumstances would be by having her sectioned under the Mental Health Act (which would be an impossible ruling, in view of her state of mind and the fact she is not a threat to herself, nor anybody coming into contact with her) can they insist upon being present at the upcoming meeting to discuss the plans for her return home (I'm expecting them to object and make it a very difficult and distressing situation) or, in view of the bad feeling at the moment, can it be medical staff only together with myself, and the social care work arrangements could be sorted out once my mother is home and actually in her presence with her able to participate? A complicated situation, I admit, but I would appreciate your thoughts.
I am due to have a meeting with the staff at the hospital to discuss her long-term needs and, having spoken to the Social Services Team Leader (I also found out that not she but the person largely responsible for this insistence of dimentia or actually 'advanced dimentia' as she had put it, and for the insistence 'she can no longer make decisions for herself' and requires 24-hour care is, in fact, not an actual qualified Social Worker as she had told me, and she may even have told me she was senior, but is in reality some kind of assistant - I can't think of the actual term the Team Leader actually used but basically it's a person who becomes involved in social care cases, probably with supervision, but is not actually qualified, and so presumably is not qualified to make any judgements regarding a particular case? Anyway, it's all a huge maelstrom I'm trying to get used to but cutting a long story short I believe Social Services has told me, as the patient's next-of-kin, nothing but a pack of lies, my mother is lying in hospital with no further need to be there the medical staff have informed me other than Social Services insistence that there needs to be further discussion around her circumstances). The 'Social Worker' is also now subject of an official complaint.
It is great to discover an invaluable resource for advice and information on how to progress with this whole situation which I'm having to deal with on my own and the possibility of my mother facing the possible advancement of dimentia at some stage (I presume she must have been showing *some* signs, although she is as sharp as a pin in any discussion and with any recall and as I say this could have been the result of both old age and the drugs for the urinary infection).
If I had one question to ask at this stage it would be: in view of my experiences with Social Services so far and my being aware that the only way they could insist upon my mother having to enter a home under the current circumstances would be by having her sectioned under the Mental Health Act (which would be an impossible ruling, in view of her state of mind and the fact she is not a threat to herself, nor anybody coming into contact with her) can they insist upon being present at the upcoming meeting to discuss the plans for her return home (I'm expecting them to object and make it a very difficult and distressing situation) or, in view of the bad feeling at the moment, can it be medical staff only together with myself, and the social care work arrangements could be sorted out once my mother is home and actually in her presence with her able to participate? A complicated situation, I admit, but I would appreciate your thoughts.