Finding a good home?

[george_2002]

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?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[sunnydisposition]

https://www.cqc.org.uk/what-we-do/servi ... -care-home

Try the above link...

[bowlingbun]

I have helped a lot of people find a home.

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.

[sunnydisposition]

https://caretobedifferent.co.uk/3-criti ... -dementia/

Google search link....

[Penny]

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.

Hope you get sorted soon.

[bowlingbun]

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.

[george_2002]

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.

[george_2002]

I have helped a lot of people find a home.

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.

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.

[george_2002]

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.

Hope you get sorted soon.

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

[bowlingbun]

George, where was mum living until recently?

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,