Help with Councils and Care Homes

Hello Everyone here on this forum.

I come to you not as a sufferer myself but for my dear brother who cannot use his hands very well now due to no strength in them.

My brother is 62 had MS since his late 20’s and in the last few years is illness has got progressively worse. He has been in and out of hospital and tried to remain independent at home with carers.

We are now sadly having so many issue with my brother that he has asked if he could go into a care home in Dorset where all his family are including his children and friends.

He has been in and is still in hospital for over 8 weeks as has had a blood infection and UTI infection along with COVID which he caught there. He does not want to go back to him housing trust home he wants to go back to where his needs will be met now.
. Has to use a ceiling hoist with assistance to get in and out of bed.
. Has to use a ceiling hoist with assistance to use the toilet.
. Needs to be shower and washed by carers.
. If weather is hot needs to be fed as cannot hold anything in his left hand his right hand is mostly dead hot or cold weather.
. He cannot sallow correctly so is a high risk of choking.
. Cannot stand and has not core muscles so falls out of his wheelchair offered and has to wait for the ambulance to go and pick him up.
. His eyes sometimes go blurred and he cannot see.
. His speak sometimes goes slurred.
. He never goes out due to being scared so the only people he sees are is carers which cost him over £1000 for 1hour 1/2 a day.
. He is still waiting for a new wheelchair to be order so he cannot keep falling out but this has been months now.
He has been told by the OT, Physio and Social Worker at Northwick Park Hospital that they consider he okay to live alone with 4 visits a day last on being 8pm so if he did mess himself he would be sitting our in bed with that burning his skin until they could change him. My brother suffers from break down of skin in this area so this is a high risk again.
My brother does have funds over the £23K allowed but he told Ealing Social Services he was happy to pay for his care in a authority home until it ran out but they have told me and him that he cannot be put up for a placement and move as he does not meet the needs to be in care home.

What I was wondering is there anyone who has experienced this too and what did you do, did you manage to get your love ones into a care home or am i and my brother to accept this. Please not he was rush to hospital last time as yet again within a year his 3rd sezuire which he has been very lucky with a tewice i was present and last time his cleaners where at his home otherwise i am not too sure how we would have found him. Is there anyone legal that could help us changelle their decision as they did not ask my brother about it they told him his requested to be moved to Dorset was not going to happen and he would never get it. I think you must be on deaths door to be alone into a home them. I told Ealing Council once you got the placement my brother would come under a different council so not your problem or cost.

Any help would be greatly received. Thank you D

I’ve no experience in this area but try contacting the MS Society Support service. The phone number is on the Society’s website and it looks as if they can advise and help on a whole range of issues including legal

It sounds like your brother should be in a nursing home going by what you wrote. You could try continuing health care . It’s needs basis, and if your brother is struggling with swallowing the hospital should have referred him to the SALT team. Continuing health care is NHS and if your brother is allocated it they will pay the care fees.

Agree with @animali . My aunt (RIP) was in a nursing home paid for by the local health board. Definitely worth looking into

That sounds awful for him and I cannot understand why the Local Authority is so reluctant to provide him with the residential care he needs, particularly when he will be self-funding.

Most problems are best approached in stages rather than in one fell swoop, and I do wonder whether concentrating on getting him installed in a suitable care facility locally isn’t the place to start. From there, he and his family can think about the logistics and practicalities of transferring to somewhere in Dorset. Securing residential care at all would be a great start and provide a reasonable holding orbit while he considers longer-term options. One option, if the LA won’t play ball and as a last resort: if he has the funds to pay, he can check himself into a care home of his own choice whenever he wants to and take it from there.