MIL needs to go into care, advice needed

sitcom321

not sure if this is the right place to put this but please feel free to move. My mother in law has been in hospital for the past 5 months and is now getting towards being discharged, she is no longer able to care for herself and circumstances/work issues etc mean she will be unable to live with family. we want her to go into a nursing home as she is very very unsteady on her feet and can only walk a matter of yards with a frame plus 2 nurses assisting, she is unable to clean herself or manage toileting unassisted, she is also in and out of confusion, some days she is ok other days she is completely out of it. she also has a permanent catheter in. the hospital staff say she is borderline residential/nursing veering towards nursing. however the local council who are in charge of funding say they feel she is residential and not nursing. we have a meeting with them tomorrow at the hospital to discuss MIL needs and what kind of care she will need. can anyone give me any advice on how I can get them to either change their mind or can tell me what is the difference between residential and nursing care.

she will for certain fall if she is left and if she needs the toilet she will be unable to do that, just find it hard to believe that they think she is only residential. advice appreciated

Amanda65

Phone Relatives & Residents Association - great at giving advice

http://www.relres.org/

Person_one

Residential homes do have care assistants working there to help with toileting/getting around, they don't need to be a qualified nurse to provide most of the help your MIL will need.

At a nursing home, there will generally only be one actual nurse on the premises at any one time anyway, the care assistants still do most of the work. If she needs nursing interventions like a catheter change then she will be on the books of the district nurses and they will visit.

I don't know exactly what the criteria are, or how to appeal, sorry. I just wanted to give you a bit of reassurance that she can still be well cared for in a residential home. Some are excellent, others are less so, I'd probably focus on getting her into a really nice one.

Mojisola

It's going to vary around the country but I found the hospital (nurses, OTs, mental health nurse, etc) very supportive when my Dad was leaving hospital. They refused to discharge him until he was being given a suitable place.

It could be worth phoning a couple of care homes and asking whether they would be able to deal with someone with her needs. The rules are quite strict about what residential care staff are allowed to handle.

tea_lover

We had a very similar situation with my Grandad and found the main difference was funding, rather than a difference in the care itself. The hospital successfuly argued that he needs nursing care, and this is now paid for him. If he'd been classed as needing residential care he would have been paying for it himself. Not sure if that's just the case round here though.

The hospital were great and really argued his case, making sure all his medical issues were noted.

sitcom321

thank you all so much for your advice. I am not sure if its funding as the hospital have said if she lived in our area which is where she is in hospital she would get nursing care no problem, but as she lives outside the area they are coming to see her and they don't agree she needs nursing. thank you Amanda65 I will definitely look into what you said