Typical care home costs

weanie

Artha
I have every sympathy wih you over your challenges. My mother was diagnosed with vascular dementia just over one year ago. At the time, the assessment was mild dementia. Our recent visit to the hospital saw the diagnosis change to moderate to severe. She is living with us for most of the time now and she has other medical compalints which require attention, medication and hospital visits.
As I understand it, when we decide that we cannot go on any more with Mum and she has to go into a home, she will be self funding in as much as an attachment will be applied to her house prior to sale and the accumulated debt will be re-paid from the sale of her house. Naturally I am keen to try for PCT funding when this time comes and need to prepare myself for the future.
to this end, I can definitely recommend the advice given on this site - particularly posts from 'monkeyspanner' and 'malid'. Lots of useful links and information and advice.
When we spoke to the doctor, he recommended a home for EMI patients [I think this is elderly mentally ill] and we contacted one to get an idea about paymetn arrangements. The matron quoted about £2200 pe month and this would be made up out of pensions - private and state - attendance allowance and eventual payments from the sale of Mum's house.
As far as I can discover, it is considered that most dementia sufferers do not get PCT funding and based on the dementia alone and rather their successful application would rely upon other medical factors which indicate specialised nursing care.
Good luck. There must be an awful lot of people who face the challenges we are facing to care for our elderly relatives and it does make it a bit easier to think that we are not unique!

Errata

Re http://www.csci.org.uk reports. Homes are inspected yearly, but sometimes there's a longer gap between inspections.

CSCI inspections concentrate on accurate record keeping which is important and they also ask residents for their views of the home and the care they receive. As most residents have absolutely no experience of any home other than the one they reside in they may feel their care is adequate - the staff are 'nice' 'friendly' etc but they can't judge if it's actually better or worse than it is in other homes. Of course the same applies to any relatives that CSCI talk to. Inspection visits usually last for 2 - 3 hours.

CSCI rates homes after inspection with stars. Most homes score two stars, which means their are improvements a home must make to acheive three stars. A one star rating rings warning bells ! Few homes rate three stars and those that do continue to make improvements to the standard of care to ensure they keep their three stars.

HTH

Savvy_Sue

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

For a 'good' home with dementia care, the latter, from looking at the other threads.

Actually I nearly said £1000 per week, but the actual figures quoted in a (very) quick scan of other posts seemed to indicate lower costs than that. One explanation could be that they didn't cover dementia care, another that they were what the Local Authority would pay rather than what the home would charge.

Either way, good care isn't cheap, and excellent care is expensive.

artha

many thanks to all who have replied to my original post especially those with first hand experience of the problem and who understand the heartbreak of this sort of situation

dzug1

Given the size of your FiL's pension, I would guess that he has been used to reasonably decent standards in life and therefore might not be happy in a 'basic' care home and would like to spend his last years in relative comfort.

I'd guess therefore that you (well he) won't pay less than £500 a week but it's unlikely to reach £1000 (though some homes, particularly nursing, are approaching this figure). But it does depend on the area of the country.

The other problem you might find is finding somewhere suitable with a vacancy. Good well managed homes tend to fill up. On your side is that he is at home and not, for example, being pressed to be discharged from hospital - this does give you extra time if admission is not urgent. I'd be prepared to move (or at least decide) quickly when the time comes.

What does he think of the situation - or is he too far gone to tell? If he understands and accepts what is happening that is a major obstacle overcome. It's still an upheaval, it's still heartbreaking, but you are not battling against him as well as all the other problems.

MiL is paying £700 a week - in a nursing home, though she doesn't need its full facilities yet. The NHS pick up about £100 of that, and after 6 months Attendance Allowance should cover a bit more.

fredsnail

My Grandfathers fees are cheap because we live in a rural area - but ironically it's one of the best homes in the area - beating more expensive ones.

The best thing to do is to go round homes in your area over the weekends - and during meal times as there are unlikely to be managers etc around to provide spin, and meal times is one of the busiest times and can be very enlightening to see how staff interact with residents etc - also you can see what activities are put on for the residents and there are more likely to be other visitors that you can talk to.

monkeyspanner

My MIL care home fees are £429 per week (small town in Devon). She has dementia and multiple other medical problems.

Savvy Sue has pointed you to the most relevant threads. You should also consider whether your relative may be eligable for NHS funded continuing healthcare. This is not means tested and the NHS will pick up all the costs of care home fees if your relative's needs are primarily medical rather than domestic. If you do a search on 'CHC', continuing healthcare, or continuing care you will pick up most of the relavant threads.

bunny999

My aunt pays £465 per week for a care home in Milton Keynes. If you are self funding you can claim Attendence Allowance.

artha

Assuming my FIL goes into care is it possible for the family to let his home to top up funds so that he can get an improved standard of care?

dzug1

artha wrote: »

Assuming my FIL goes into care is it possible for the family to let his home to top up funds so that he can get an improved standard of care?

Yes - but you will need Power of Attorney to do so on his behalf