Reclaim Care Home Costs for Free- New MSE guide

I am a Social Worker working with Older People and have attended many Multi-Disciplinary meetings to assess for Continuing Health Care funding. Obviously I can only speak from my own experience but during a full assessment Social Services ( who are often, but not always, already involved) should be asked to do a Social Care assessment - different from a nursing assessment which will often be done by a District Nurse if the person is at home or by a nurse in hospital. Following completion of assessments the meeting itself should include family members, other professionals involved and the individual themselves if they are able to attend.
Each of the criteria will be gone through and everyone has the opportunity for input at this point and a "meeting " decision is taken.The meetings look at the nature, intensity, complexity or unpredictability of the individual’s needs when making a decision.
If their condition is very unstable and unpredictable CHC is more likely to be approved.
It is not unusual for there to be joint funding between Health and Social Care, where the person clearly has a health need but also social care needs and the decision is always reviewed regularly because as someone has already mentioned if the health need resolves then Continuing Health Care will often no longer fund.. However what I have also found is that if it is considered that the only reason the health need has lessened is because of the quality of the nursing care then they will often continue to fund if that argument can be made.
Also if the individual is turned down but their condition substantially deteriorates then a new nursing assessment checklist can be asked for.
I think you should definitely read the Decision Support Tool before any meetings and good practice would say this should be gone through with family members/carers before the meeting. I have certainly done this many times myself.. Don't be afraid to ask for this to be done.
Hope this helps a bit

Ps I'm not saying I agree with all this but just telling it as it is !

Hi,

This was my Nan's situation and my Dad had to be a lot of money for her care, including selling her house well below the value. It was 70K but because it wasn't selling he had to accept the lowest offer to satisfy the council, so sold it for 23K!!!! Still a sore point in our house.

Anyways is the deadline strictly 2004 onwards as my Nan died in 2003 after 10 years inside a care facility for her alzehimers - any help appreciated

Caroline xx

monkeyspanner wrote: »

Have a look at Coughlan vs NE Devon Health authority July 1999.
You would also need to check if there is a statute of limitation on cases like this.

Hi -Many Thanks for your reply.... what does a 'statue of limitation' mean?? I want to tell my Dad about this reclaiming, but don't want to get his hopes up if we are outside of the deadline. As I mentioned earlier, its still a touchy subject the way the council and care trust bullied him for costs etc. One day she was in the local hospital for 2 weeks rest bite care, the next she was never allowed home again and into full time care.

Thanks xx

We, my sister and I, fought our local PCT successfully regarding our father who was in late stage vascular dementia, bedridden, doubly incontinent, unable to feed himself, bullous pemphigoid skin condition, bed sores etc etc. He had his first CC Assessment whilst in hospital February 2009 and the decision was made there and then that he did not qualify for full funding but was granted the nursing aspect of his care paid directly to the care home, which in itself implies that there is a medical need. His follow up assessment should have taken 3 months after the first, according to the NHS Guidelines, but we had to make several phone calls and send begging letters before they would re-assess and this took place in October 2009, 8 months after his initial assessment. Even though dad's condition had deteriorated the same decision was made - does not qualify. However, after much persistence and dogged determination we managed to set up a meeting with the lead nurse of our PCT and a decision was made in our favour, back paid to the original assessment, we feel sure that the initial decision was overturned as the MDT did not follow the correct procedure. I say don't give up and don't allow people to assume that's it's all about the money when the principle far outweighs that!