My father in law has just been admitted to a care home because he was unable to look after himself in his retirement village with care 4times daily. He has Parkinson’s , Parkinson’s dementia and alhzeimers. They are now doing the assessment for CHC funding which we probably be rejected. Has anyone had dealings with solicitors to fight on your behalf. I have phone one who stated that they usually win 80% of cases and paying a solicitor may be less money than £5000 per month
Thanks
Elizabeth,
Why don’t you wait and see what happens first?
Make sure you are at the assessment meeting and are familiar with the criteria, the scoring and how your FIL scores so you can challenge any parts of the assessment if they don’t accurately reflect his level of need.
Melly1
How do I do that
Hi Elizabeth. You can download a CHC tool. It explains the criteria and scoring system. Gives you a good idea of what the CHC assessment team are looking for.
Helped me when was sorting for my late husband. Be aware they have a tendency to play things down.
Elizabeth - the best advice I can give you is go to the Care To Be Different site. everything you need to know is on there. I found out on there that if there is a big deterioration in the person then you can apply for Fast Track CHC. I did just that for my Mum and got funding after about a week.
I didn’t see a solicitor or anybody else …. Just told the GP what I wanted him to do and filled in one form and we got it! Good luck and remember if they do try and turn you down, just keep going.
I agree with the advice not to go to a solicitor. First of all, as Melly says, wait and see. When my brother was assessed for CHC, both the NHS and the social services representatives thought he should get it, but he was turned down. I appealed, with their help. I got a new assessment and we won. You are the person who knows about your father in law. A solicitor couldn’t add anything to that. If you are unlucky and lose, you can think about it again.
Elizabeth - the website is caretobedifferent.co.uk
And I should have said it is free and you can call them too. It is the best and most helpful site I have ever come across.
Yes, I’d like to second Penny’s recommendation of the Care to be Different site, it’s a great resource, although I didn’t find it until I no longer needed it.
Thanks for the help.
Let us know how you get on Elizabeth.x
The nurse at the care home has said she has done an assessment and that he wouldn’t qualify for CHC funding. I’m a little bit miffed as she has no power to say that. I have asked her to send me the assessment
Elizabeth
It’s not the nurse at the care home who completes the assessment. It’s a multidisciplinary team which consists of at least 2 practitioners a social worker etc.
Sounds like the nurse doesn’t have a clue about what is properly involved.
Look at the CHC Framework, and then you can ask to see copies of all the reports etc.etc!! I don’t believe for one moment anything was done properly.
It may not have been an actual assessment. We went through a lengthy pre-assessment process,(via a Zoom meeting) covering all eleven domains which said we didn’t even qualify for an assessment.
Yes I think it may have been a pre assessment checklist prior to CHC. We are going on Thursday as a family. I fail to see she did this assessment after knowing him for only 2weeks. She also failed to have a family representation to advocate on behalf of my FIL . Also he wasn’t involved either. Not that he would understand
In that case, it wasn’t a proper checklist assessment.
Yes, that’s what I thought I’ve had the pre assessment sent to me and have made notes on it. I will arm myself with that when we go in
Before my mum’s meeting, I wrote out my own agenda of things to be discussed, and printed 12 copies. Stunned silence when I handed them round. Whenever they used jargon, I stopped the meeting and said it was inappropriate, they needed to explain, and I said this repeatedly, it made them look stupid. Take a notepad. Write down who said what. Ask them to talk more slowly as you want to get it right. Dress smartly, and arrive early, so they don’t have a pre meeting, when they agree their stories in advance!