Hello, I am trying to find a good home for my mother who has Parkinsons and dementia in Edinburgh.
She spent 6 weeks in a place of our choosing which was great, but they said because of her good mobility but balance issues, she needs more one on one support and would cost a lot more than the already high price.
So we now need to look for another home.
My main question is, carehomedot co.uk has homes that have a lot of good reviews but the care Inspectorate report is ‘adequate’ then there are other homes on the same website that have really good care Inspectorate reports but have no reviews at all on that website.
Its very confusing. Does having no reviews on that website, but having very good inspection reports, mean anything?
And why do homes with low grades have great reviews?
Firstly, you need to decide who is going to pay.
In England,
if someone has over £23,000 and/or owns a house, they are classed as “Self Funding”
UNLESS
They are very sick, in which case the NHS will pay under the NHS Continuing Healthcare scheme,
With dementia and Parkinsons, you need to find a home which will care for her, whatever is needed, until she dies. Her last ever move.
So you need to look for and EMI home - Elderly Mentally Infirm.
Hello George. I would pay no attention whatsoever to the carehome site you mention. My Mum was in a home for 8 months which was spotlessly clean and the staff seemed friendly at first but as the weeks went on it became obvious that the staff were not interested, the residents were left to their own devices and just plonked in front of TVs. In the very early days the owner was so nice to us and asked me to leave a review on that site. I did, even though I felt it was a bit premature. Later on I found out that she only asked new people in the “honeymoon period” never anybody who had complained or questioned anything. That site does not allow negative comments and it was a real trial to remove my comments months later when I found out what it was really like. I made them do so in the end!
I would say go by your gut feelings …. I looked @ 14 homes before I found the right one to move my Mum to. From day one they really cared for her and she was happy for over 3 years.
I would also say CQC reports don’t give a fair picture either I’m afraid. I was at the inspection at the first home and my mum clearly told the inspector that she was often still hungry as the meals were tiny but there was no mention of that in the published report. I also said that there were no activities organised and Staff avoided me if I queried anything and no mention was made of this either.
When I was looking at homes for mum, I asked myself “would I be happy here?”. Is it clean, are the staff friendly, does the food look and smell nice? When you go first, make an appointment to talk to the Matron/Manager. The second visit should be unannounced, just before meal time. Are residents helped to eat? Spoken to nicely? You will soon " feel" if somewhere is suitable. Start looking at the homes nearest to you. Mum was a mile away, on the way to the shops. I could pop in whenever I wanted.
Thanks, very good advice. Unfortunately I’m not sure id be able to do an unannounced visit during covid, but the ‘would I be happy here’ question is a great way to look at it.
I still need to find out more about the Scottish version of Continuing Healthcare, its very vague up here and is called hospital based clinical care and appears to be only fully funded if they need to stay in hospital. But local Parkinsons advisors have told me it can in some cases be used to fund homes. I’ll need to do more enquiries about that.
Thanks and yes not an easy task. The home we found her was perfect, such a disappointment to find out she couldn’t stay there.
I’ll keep looking and will do my best to trust my gut feeling
I’m near Southampton, so know nothing about the differences when living in Scotland, but here if you have dementia, it counts as “severe mental impairment” and therefore mum would be exempt from Council Tax since the diagnosis of dementia. It’s one of the very rare occasions where refunds can be backdated. Martin Lewis has reported one refund of over £8,000!
If mum is self funding, then she would still be entitled to Attendance Allowance (assuming she is over 65) and also something called FNC - Funded Nursing Care. Again, I don’t know if Scotland has something similar, but it’s worth asking the local Parkinson’s advisors about,
She was living at her home in Edinburgh, where she is now actually as I got her back home for christmas while we search for somewhere new as was worried how latest covid could unfold. Thank for the heads up about the council tax
Can I ask, in England with Continuing Healthcare, if the NHS in some cases pay for the full care, does the resident need to settle for a home of the NHS’/Council’s choosing, somewhere that costs much less?
When looking at homes in England, you need to ask “Do you accept residents funded by NHS Continuing Healthcare”?
OR
Do you accept residents who are funded by the local council? (in my case, that’s Hampshire)
Most homes charge one rate to self funded patients, and a much lower rate for CHC or LA residents. This is VERY unfair, it means that self funded patients (as my mum was) are subsidising the others!! The only difference in care being self funders got new towels every day, the others don’t (According to a notice in the Nurses Station at mum’s home!)
If you are funded by the council, then you can ask for an upgrade, which can be funded by a relative.
I’m not sure about CHC - for chapter and verse on this subject ask Google to find the “CHC Framework”. It’s about 200 pages if I remember rightly, but you don’t need to read it all, as I did!
Hope that helps, feel free to ask if you need to know anything more I can help with.
Aha, that’s a bit of an eye opener. That kind of unlocks a lot I didn’t understand. I didn’t know why some homes accept only self funded and why some accept both, now I know! Very helpful, will be useful information going forward. Thankyou
and yes not an easy task. The home we found her was perfect, such a disappointment to find out she couldn’t stay there.