Has anyone experience of eldercare and careline ? My 89 year old mum lives on her own and has me popping in most days to support her and 4 carer visits a day. She wears a falls careline but the problem I’m having is when she does fall all eldercare do is call an ambulance, mum doesn’t want to go to hospital, isn’t injured and spends several hours lying on the floor uncomfortable, incontinent waiting for an ambulance to come and rescue her. The ambulance is low priority - rightly its a ‘life saving service’ not a ‘pick an old lady off the floor’ service. It’s embarrassing and humiliating and a complete waste of resources.
Eldercare recently decided not to pick anyone up off the floor that had dementia, now they have decided to only do it after assessment which includes a big no if she’s been on the floor for more than an hour.
I’m just so frustrated as it means every time she falls I have to leave work and race over to try and prevent an ambulance being called today I failed and the ambulance was there for over 2 hours while mum repeatedly told them she didnt want to go anywhere and was at times quite anxious.
What can I do ? Can we get lifting equipment ourselves ?
Welcome and hello!
Yes you can. A occupational therapist can assist you with that. Have you had a needs assessment or not? The Disabled Living Foundation has more information on aids and equipment or what about a mobility aid shop? Can you afford a care home?
I’m friends with a very senior ambulance officer.
He thinks that picking elderly people up when they fall is a vital service, their role in Community Care. It’s really important that they are properly assessed before being moved, but often just need to be reassured, and tucked up in bed or a comfy chair again.
What is the official line of the ambulance service, that says it’s OK to leave someone on the floor for so long? Do they have an emergency first responder service?
My husband frequently falls & cannot get up unaided & even then it is a struggle for me. We looked at our local Careline who ring the relative if the person presses their button - ie me! Consequently we never bothered as he rings me himself.
Recently we have had quite a bit of input from neuro-OTs. They have been fantastic. We have an ELK lifting cushion -
This was provided by the adult social care. This is a bit better but my husband struggles to remain upright whilst it inflates so now we have just heard they have agreed to fund a razer
This lifts someone from lying down.
These are the things that the ambulance service uses & many care homes have them as well.
My husband is capable of saying if there is a more significant problem than usual so I know when not to move him. However these lifting devices have been a real godsend - I can get my husband up without damage to him or me! We have taken the ELK away on holiday for use in hotel rooms & other people’s houses which aren’t as geared up for my husband as our home.
If you haven’t got an OT then ask for a referral via your GP.
This must vary from borough to borough. It was the norm for the ambulance to come and help my brother get up. The time they took varied. He actually called them himself and told them he was OK lying there or not. They would bring one of these Mangar Elk devices that SeasideDeb refers to. There was not one in every ambulance, so the ambulance sometimes had to go and collect it first. I like the idea of getting your own, but I am sure they are expensive and I can’t imagine OT funding them.
The Careline equivalent we used later, when my brother could no longer get out of bed, so it just called an ambulance if he needed one. I think it is a useful feature. However, we only ever called it accidentally, when he pressed the button when he was being turned over in bed. So we would shout out to the phone “Just testing!” (you are supposed to do a test call sometimes).
Like Bowlingbun, I wonder how the ambulance service can get away with routinely not helping old people get up.