Parent with Alzheimers, future planning

strawbeery90

thegreenone said:

tooldle said:

Believe me a good care facility is worth every penny. I think people often do not realise what end stage dementia looks like.

I think this has to be the best quote of the thread.  

I agree with this. It's really important to have a good care facility now matter how much the worth. It

whatsthenews

KxMx said:

Your father is in a very positive position in being able to choose where and when he goes into residential care. 
Perhaps you are unaware as to the standard the local authority will fund, and the lengths they will go to to avoid doing so, a friend (supported by a multitude of other professionals) had a 3 year battle to get residental care for a relative suffering from dementia.
Funding was only secured after a hospital admission resulted in staff refusing discharge to anywhere other than a care setting.

The" standard" a local authority will fund is very often and certainly in our 2  LA areas, no different to the care someone who's self funding will receive.
LA funded and self funders side by side in the same care homes, identical rooms and identical staff providing care. 
We have insufficient care home placements available and some of the better care homes won't accept people ( whether self funders or otherwise) who have higher dependency levels even if they have rooms available because they don't have enough staff to be able to meet their needs 

The BIG difference between being a self funder and part  funded ( technically nobody is fully funded )by the LA is that self funders are denied access to a Social worker ,other than to carry out a care needs assessment, and even then NHS trusts and LAs are using private companies such as CHS Healthcare to carry out assessments of self funders.
The LA funded and placed person has access to a Social worker at any stage of the process, including should situations arise where they want t , or are forced , to move to a different home. 
No such support for the self funder , even when there's a DoLS in place. 
You're on your own .
My father recently had his contracted terminated by the care home management team because I queried some indemnity clauses in the contract ( which we didn't have sight of until after he moved in) and,  rather than answer the queries they terminated the contract. If he'd been LA funded ,the contract/ terms and conditions , fees and payment thereof would all have been sorted well in advance of him moving in .


As it was , we were under considerable pressure from the NHS trust  in the lead up to Christmas to find him a placement because he was " medically fit".They'd already tried this 2 weeks earlier whilst still in an acute care bed, but I successfully argued that he wasn't medically fit so they moved him to a very  rural  community hospital 25 miles away. 
We were travelling 50 miles 3 times a week to visit whilst also providing care visits twice daily  for my mother .

Despite the fact that we'd raised concerns about the care provided ( raised a safeguarding concern) and his contract was cancelled with immediate effect , the LA wouldn't support us ( acting on behalf of my 91 year old father who suffers from dementia, poor mobility  and requires  all personal care to be carried out by carers) in finding another care home placement.
Because I raised concerns about the quality of the care, the contract and lack of information provided re fees with the Care Quality Commission and the CMA, the care home kept putting pressure on us to move him out. 
The MD has lied to us in response to concerns we raised , and also to the Care Quality commission. 
He's also repeatedly  threatened me with legal action under the Malicious communications Act , purely because  myself and my husband wrote to the other 2 company directors informing them of what was going on.  
The only thing the LA were concerned about was getting the DoLS in place before he moved. 

Please don't assume that it's easier for self funders to find good care , because it simply isn't true, and in fact they're at a disadvantage when it comes to obtaining any support if things go wrong or when they're at their most vulnerable because the reality is that LAs simply don't care. 

KxMx

Sorry for your troubles but I stand by my post. 

Had the person in question been self funding they could have gone into a residential care home 3 years ago. 

With no assets there was no choice but to accept what the LA would provide - 4 daily care visits - and they pressured family to call in on top.
As I said multiple professionals were involved trying to get them into a care home as well. It wasn't just the family thinking they needed a home. 

bunnygo

HIS house and HIS savings are to pay for HIS care.  Sorry, but that's how it is - care has to be paid for somehow. Money gives choices.You can't safeguard your inheritance, if that's what you are thinking.

you could arrange live-in carers for now, probably no cheaper as you still need to maintain the house. That does depend on the suitability of the property.