Desperate for help. sheltered home have blocked his return

dazza-mac

Dear all,

My dad was discharged from hospital last Wednesday. He was returned to hospital the following day as the carers at his 'extra care sheltered accommodation' called out gp who said he was dehydrated.

When I got to flat he was 100% better than the day before. The staff who saw him had not seen him the day before when he came home when to be fair, he looked really out of sorts.

He has osteomylitis and had a lot of discomfort due to a pressure sore on his hip where the dressing had come off. But he was drinking and talking and watching tv.

We got to the hospital whereby the dr said he looked fine, took bloods, gave him food and drink and then said that she was happy for him to go home. His bloods showed that he wasn't dehydrated.

Normally I'm the harridan who blocks the exit door saying 'ur not turfing him out till he's been checked properly'. But I agreed with the dr.

The problem is that the sheltered home with extra care have blocked him going home and he's been in hospital a week and we've heard nothing!!

What should I be doing. I despise his social worker and have heard nothing even though I rang an out of hours social worker who said she'd email dads social worker.

Dad was fine, there was no reason that the carers would not manage him at home. He actually went home in Dec for end of life care but picked up and was doing well till he got the osteomylitis - but he's still better than he was in Dec! What can we do? What happens next. The carers (management) say he needs to be assessed. What can we do to prevent them putting him in a home that he doesn't want to go to.

He has carer's coming in every 2 hours and I'm there everyday for at least 6 hours.

Skibunny40

I don't know how the sheltered housing system works, but can't you just take him to his house and leave him?! Does he have keys? (I have a vision of angry carers blocking the doorway! Sorry, don't mean to be flippant, just sounds so strange)

When you say the carers say he needs to be assessed - who do they want him to be assessed by? Surely if the hospital say he's fit to be discharged, then that's sufficient?

Linton

I fear you are approaching the situation with the wrong attitude. Social Services are the key organisation you need to work with in order to come up with the appropriate care plan. Despising a social worker does not help your father. Neither does fighting them. Work with them, they are the people who can access the resources your father may need and know what is feasible/available in the area.



Does your father have mental capacity to make his own decisions? If not do you have Power of Attorney?


An Assessment does seem to be a sensible next step. It may be that the sheltered housing people do not believe they are the right environment to meet his needs. From memory of what happened in my parents case: With an assessment ideally your father, social services, yourself or another family representative and whoever else is required should come together to identify and document your fathers situation and his needs and wishes. Social services will come up with recommendations as to what should be done. If you have alternative proposals you can put them forward to be considered.


From my understanding untimately Social Services with the approval of the courts can do what they believe necessary but it is much better all round if you work together.

Lavender13

Could you ask the hospital staff to organize a discharge planning meeting, so that everyone involved in dad's care (past and present )can attend, and discuss what his needs are and what options would meet those needs .

elsien

My guess would be that they have concerns that he has nursing needs that they are not able to meet, or that they are worried if he needs more help at night - does he have carers through the night as well? They want to be sure that his needs can be met in that environment before he comes back.

You need to address this through the social worker. They can do a review, see if his support plan needs updating (with yours and his involvement) and liaise with the provider. They will be concerned about unsafe discharge so if between you you can allay that fear then they may be more willing to take him back.
Of course if dad has capacity, there's nothing to stop him from upping sticks and going but you then run the risk they won't cooperate and it's far better to work with people than against them. There's probably something in the licence/tenancy with regards to changing needs.

Give the ward the social workers contact details as well - they don't want people in hospital any longer than necessary because of the infection risk so maybe they could chase things up as well.
I did have someone who was discharged to a care home assessment bed, in a similar situation, but after a review the housing with care agreed to have him back again.