Barnet Social Services visit - 20 April 2010
Here's an old post from my main blog that relates to a visit from Barnet Social Services:
We had a visit yesterday from the manager of the Barnet Social Services department that looks after families such as ourselves. Her name is Eileen Ratling and she was wonderful - a true professional who rolled with the challenges we usually face when we have visitors to meet my mother. She avoided asking lots of questions as this tends to confuse dementia patients and clearly communicated what was and wasn't available to us.
This is what we have learned:
- Mum's savings are too high to qualify for Direct Payments which would assist with the carer costs. However as Eileen rightly said, if her savings were low enough to qualify, the quality of care wouldn't be anywhere near as good as we currently have
- Non-means-tested respite care payments are available to Dad for 6 weeks in a year. The value is equivalent to their standard contracted rate for a registered Care Home minus Dad's contribution towards it which is £10 per night. We've filled in the form for assessment and hope to be awarded one week's respite as a trial
- We would also like to investigate having someone help Dad with coping strategies counselling. My sister's experience of having counselling via Barnet Social Services was very positive and it sounds like the small charge they make is well worth it!!
We know Dad found his support group experience less than helpful - as he says, they're full of women moaning about all the stuff they have to do for their husbands. This doesn't sit well with him a) from his male perspective and b) for all the stuff he does for Mum and NEVER complains!
For me, getting him this kind of counselling is important for two reasons:
1 without taking a mild sleeping pill, he's on edge listening out for Mum and therefore doesn't sleep. He's been on them every night for about a month now and although this doesn't currently represent a problem, I'm worried about their long-term use
2 the one thing Dad does well and really enjoys, is going to his sports club and from being top of his division, his scores are now slipping. He says that since Mum's recent deterioration, he can't focus like he used to; he's constantly keeping an eye on the time to be sure he's back when he's said he'd be back. This is partly a carer issue but also because of Mum's behaviour ie needing to know where he is, what he's doing and when he'll be back.
As this is his only recreation/leisure pursuit, it's important he properly switches off from his caring duties so having some workable coping strategies for this is going to be invaluable.
Despite being the manager of the department, Eileen is happy to be our main contact - she has already replied to our email asking about counselling with the web address and who we need to speak with.
I'm confident we're in good hands!