In the UK the sale of your assets (which in my Mum’s case was her property) goes towards the funding of the care home. Once you reach a £23,000 threshold the Council is responsible for managing the funding of the care from then onwards.
The recommendation is to get in touch with the council approximately 3 months prior to reaching the threshold amount. Given the pandemic I decided to get in touch far earlier as I assumed it would take a bit longer for the process to complete during these unprecedented times. Little did I know that when I made the phone call to the Council in September 2020 I was about to embark upon what can only be described as 14 months of the most unpleasant of experiences.
Initially you are asked to provide all the documentary evidence and financials such as bank account and pension statements.
As you can appreciate my preference was for my Mum to remain within her care home. After all it was the only environment she had known for five years.
Based on the financials and a health assessment the Council provide a sum they are willing to contribute. Let’s just say their contribution was way off the care home fee and as such they were expecting me to top up an eye watering £600 a week difference!
What then unfolds is a ridiculous negotiation game play between the Council and the care home and you are the pawn caught in the middle of it all.
In my case whilst the care home kindly came down in price the Council was not willing to budge. They informed me that they had found an alternative care home to move my Mum to and recommended I check it out. I did visit this alternative care home but due to Covid-19 I was unable to enter the home. I did however meet with the manager of the home who was surprised that I would even consider moving my Mum (with such an advanced dementia condition) from her home of five years as such a move would be detrimental to health. I was encouraged to persevere with the Council.
I was not impressed when the Council called me on a Monday to say that if I was not able to top up the difference in fees, they would move my Mum to an alternative care home by the Thursday. I sprung into action immediately contacting the safeguarding team. I was adamant that such a threat was not in my Mums best interests.
I proceeded to contact numerous stakeholders. Whilst I appreciate all have to remain independent and objective, I was encouraged that all those external to the Council agreed moving my Mum to an alternative care home were not in her best interests and detrimental to her health. Stakeholders I escalated to included:
– The care home Director
– My Mum’s doctor
– My Mum’s MP
– I managed to obtain free legal advice from a charity and from my employer Assistance Program
– The Council’s Leader and the Council’s Head of Health and Adult Social Care
– The complaints department at the Council
The Council should ideally perform the care assessment on my Mum in person however due to COVID lockdown they chose not to visit. As such the assessment was paperwork based only. They take their decision on how much to support the case based on a risk rating. The risk ratings are 9 in total and my Mum was rated as 7. The Council informed me that the only way they would support my Mum remaining at her care home was if she rated as 8 i.e. permanently bed bound or 9 i.e. 6 months or less to live.
They argued that because my Mum was mobile and I was unable to top up the care fee the only choice was for her to be moved to another care home. If they had visited my Mum they would have seen that my Mum had suffered greatly following testing positive for COVID. She lost so much weight that she often required 2 carers to support her mobility. She was so thin that she was put on a high risk list whereby her meals had to be carefully monitored as she was boarder line malnourished. Despite this, her GP and the care home manager opinions that my Mum was not fit for a move, the council continued to pressure me.
I had to remind the Council of the new covid guidance which they seemed to ignore. To think they thought it was reasonable to move my Mum in her condition and allow her to be quarantined in a room on her own in a new unfamiliar environment for 2 weeks!!
Part 2 to follow next time…
Living In The Moment With Dementia 