Saturday 10th July - Friday 16th July 2010

Saturday 10^th July 2010

Sarah the carer phoned to say mum had run out of Omeprozole I asked her is she could phone Daph to see if she has any as she picks mums prescription up for her and  usually take them over on Sundays

Sunday 11^th July

I phoned Daph as I had not heard back from Michael, I asked her if she thought booking mum in for respite on 1st -10^th September would be a good idea, she said she thought that would be fine, so I will do that tomorrow

Monday 12^th  July

Sharon Hale at Social Services had left a message on the answer phone saying if we want mum to go into a care home we can look at places in Hastings – Sussex area.  I phoned her back but was told that she is out of office until 1pm today and the office will get her to phone me back.

Michael phoned back and I told him about the phone call from Social Services and that I would book mum in for respite on the 1^st – 10^th September at West View, I told him about no places at Hartley House.  He told me that mum ‘wasn’t too’ bad on Saturday I asked him if he thought that I was making it up about how bad mum is and he said ‘No of course he didn’t, he said that he would go in to see her this evening.

Phoned Sharon Hale at Social Service and booked respite for mum, told her that we felt let down about Hartley House and does she think we could get a place there in the next few months, she said that she didn’t know if that would be possible, she says that she is going there for a meeting with Beverley who is the Care Manager there and will have a chat and phone me back on Friday.

I asked for a copy of the care home directory and she said that she would put one in the post but she could only provide one for Kent and gave me a phone number to phone for  The Sussex directory she told me to ask for a copy of Residential care home guide directory for West Sussex, I also asked her a copy of mums individual care plan, she says that they usually fax one to care homes but she will send one to us.

I asked her what would happen if mum needs an urgent place in a care home do Social Services help find a placement, she told me that ‘yes’ but it is best to find ‘the right one’ because it is not a good idea to move someone with Dementia once placed as they get very disorientated, she told me that she knew that there were places at Tusker House in Hastings, she quoted again that they only pay £431.00 per week towards care and the family have to top the  payments up.  She told me again that she would phone me back on Friday.  I phoned and asked for the East Sussex directory they are putting one in the post tomorrow.  I phoned Daph and kept her up to date with all that was said.

Michael phoned and I told him also what was said and I said that I would let him know when I received the directories and the care plan.

Tuesday 13^th July

We took quite a while getting into mums as she had put all the chains on the doors and couldn’t work out how to take them off, she told us she didn’t do it someone else must have, she finally got the one off the back door and we managed to get in.

I gave her breakfast and her medications and helped her have her bath she had scratched her back so I put a plaster on it for her, had to sort out all her clothes again as she had emptied her wardrobe again and had them all on the spare bed, I had taken over several pairs of new underwear and tights for her and put them in the airing cupboard.

I went with her to the supermarket and got her groceries for her, I sorted out some money to put in her purse and put the rest in the bank.  When we came back from the shop she said ‘I might as well come back with you now then’ I had to say that we were going to pick something up and there wouldn’t be room in car, John offered to take her to Merriments garden centre before we go and she said ‘No you go’ I told her we would pick her up on Friday and she could come to us for the day she said ‘I suppose so, but I may be going out’ I told her that she wasn’t going anywhere else.

John sorted her TV as she had pulled the aerial out of the back again, we left her in her chair dozing and with a glass of watered down wine on the table for her.

Thursday 15^th July

Daph phoned to ask if mum was coming here tomorrow as she is at work tomorrow and that Dib gets worried about mum, she said that mum was very confused yesterday and went over several times, they were out but Andrew was there but he had to go back to work, she told him that she would come in for a while and he had to say to her ‘Sorry Auntie Ann I have to go back to work’ she got very cross with him. Andrew took her home as her carer was due.  She went out again and saw Bobbi-Ann and asked her where Daph was and she said that she was out and she didn’t know where she was and Bobbi took her back home.

When Daph got back she saw mum walking over to them and Dib went and met her, she put her hands on her hips and said to Daph ‘where have you been!’, she told Daph that she had walked up to the Moor and there were no seats anywhere and it was a long way. Daph asked a couple of the neighbours if they had seen mum walk down the road towards the Moor they said ‘No, but they had seen her walk up the road.

One of the neighbours told Daph that on Monday mum had walked out in the road in front of her in the village when she was driving past the car park, mum was on her way to her friend Betts, she got out of her car and stopped the traffic and saw mum across the road.

Daph told me that mum had said a couple of times this week ‘something has got to be done, I don’t like being here on my own’.

Teresa phoned to say mum has her hair permed today and that she needed some more money, I told her I would take some over tomorrow, she said mum was very, very confused today, she also said mum had said last week that someone would have to take her in as she didn’t like being on her own.

I told Teresa about Social Services and she said that she didn’t know anything about it, I thought Michael would have told her all about it but he hadn’t.  She said that she would ring Sharon Hale tomorrow and ask if mum could go on West View waiting list, I told her that I had booked mum in for respite, I also told her that I had received care home directories and also mums care plan.

Friday 16^th July

Marie from Town and Country carers phoned about doing a quality care visit, which is overdue, she asked if she could come tomorrow (Saturday) I told her that wasn’t possible as mum was at Michaels tomorrow, she is going to try and make it on Tuesday morning she gave me her number in case I wanted to get in touch with her.

We picked mum up just before 8.30am as she was coming here for the day, she was ready and waiting, she gave me a pair of knickers and a pair of tights and told me she needed them, she couldn’t remember if she had any on or not, I had to check for her and she had!  I put them in a bag and took them with me as she got a bit upset about it, she was very confused and slept most if the morning, she had lunch and then said ‘you can take me home now, I thought that we were going to look at the flowers’ so on the way home we stopped at the Garden Centre we got her home just before 3pm.

We popped into Daphs and showed her the care home directories we had received from Social Services, we rang Tusker House at Hastings and asked how much it was per week for room and they told us £431.00.

Sharon Hale (Social Services) still hadn’t phoned so phoned her and had to leave a message again as she still wasn’t there.

When we got home I tried to phone Michael, I couldn’t get hold of Michael, Linda said that she would get him to phone when he got back, I then phoned Teresa and she wasn’t happy with the state of affairs with Social Services so she is going to phone Sharon Hale on Monday when she gets in from work, she agrees that we will have to look out of the area for a care home and is OK about going to see Tusker House and others out of the area and said when Micheal gets in touch that either Monday or Tuesday afternoon was OK for her.

Michael phoned back and agreed that wee must look out of the area and that he can make it any time to go and have a look, I said I would phone Tusker House and ask if it is OK to go either Monday or Tuesday, he would phone me on Monday.