We have our second CHC assessment very soon. (UK based NHS meeting) I’m busy trying to sponge up every bit of information but it’s so dense it feels like wading through treacle.
It’s been very helpful following the threads on here. My main thought is trying to prove it’s not social needs but primary health care requirements. Did anyone else have the same thoughts?
Any experience in your assessments would be appreciated.
Many thanks 🙏
Do you keep a diary? If you do log it all down, the worse day you have, which I now every day is a bad day, how unpredictable they are falls, how tired you are, lack of sleep for you to be able to focus on looking after your loved one, you have to give the worse days and a bit more, get doctors to back you district nurses, good luck Yvonne xxxx
Agree with Yvonneandgeorge.
Can you also take a support person with you? You may be stressed, and someone else to listen beside you may help you cover all the points you want to make. Give him/her a copy so you are both on the same page.
Good luck!
Hugs
Jen xxx
Hiya. I am just trying to put together an appeal for another assessment and have been advised to go through all the domains and just list 'Needs' ie. anything that my husband cannot do for himself or without help from anyone else such as a four calls a day package of carers ie. as if he was on his own. It helped me focus and get my head round things. I went through the first paragraph of each domain and looked at what that was saying in detail. I also now keep a diary. Our neurologist and complex care doctor are also both willing to write letters of support and I am videoing the noise at night and taking photos of anything that backs up things like skin integrity. Not sure if this will help either of us but good luck. As if we haven't enough to do anyway!! Love AliBee
Thank you everyone for taking the time to comment. We will get a diary together and make sure we are clear on what a bad day is like. It’s my dad who has PSP and my mum is the main carer with me in charge of admin etc.
So hoping we get this as it will give us more options and a break for the main carer. Thanks all x
Your health needs should also be stressed. Have you had a serious/ongoing illness, depression etc. The last thing the NHS need is another patient. I had the district Matron, the OT from the community health team at my meeting. The Assessor could see how incapacitated and illnmy wife was when he tried to introduce himself to her and he fast tracked the application. Hope this helps.
Good luck with chc. Very good tips already given. Can I add, if possible can you suggest to any professionals involved that they personally speak to the assessor. I had a horrendous assessment where the assessor had cherry picked from the electronic information and it became impossible to argue with what was written down. Pete was deemed to have no primary health needs.
He has no mobility at all (but still attempts to get out of chair with resulting regular falls) regular pressure sores, double incontinent, cognition definitely impaired, on blended diet and thickeners with me feeding him because of swallowing problems etc etc
I decided that I need my energy for Pete rather than appealing at the minute. Try to stay calm, I ended up in tears because I was so angry. My daughter who happens to be an OT wants to be with me next time but I have banned her because I know she will end up thumping the assessor in frustration. But then perhaps ???????? Lol I gather that things vary from area to area so hope all goes well for you. Let us know x
Hi
We also have a review of our funding coming up so know how you are feeling. I found this document (link below) on the PSPA website useful in identifying how PSP effects Mum, I've gone through & highlighted all the relevant areas - there were even more than I thought there would be. I know our Community Matron has also successfully used this document to support a claim, so worth looking at. Mum's GP also said to encourage them to look at the risk of something happening if something else fails. eg Mum's nutrition is poor and she is on blended food, supplementary health drinks and is fed, if she wasn't fed this would not only put her at risk of poor nutrition but also at risk of skin breakdown. To me that seemed a bit tenuous but the GP was adamant it was a valid argument.
Make sure you get input from the different people who support you - carers, SALT, OT, Physio etc and if you have a Community Matron get them to come to the meeting too. Ours is a great support and pulls the information from the different discipline together for us. Good luck and lets hope the assessor gets out of bed the rightside that day !
Many thanks for your efforts of sorting out! May HOD bless you with food health and real happiness!
To me allison goodand very poorknowledgein local surgery for this Ailment has experienced.
With kind regards
Salman Khan
My advice would be to read and familiarise yourself with the DST. Rate all domains for yourself and then challenge any that the assessor wants to rate differently. As always, assess things as if it were the worst day and don`t be intimidated.
Letters from professionals are definitely worth obtaining but check through all documents supplied for errors or `understatements`. I kept a diary and even supplied videos of behaviour. I went through the care home records and picked up several anomalies that I challenged and proved were incorrect.
If you haven`t done so already, contact Beacon for free advice. I even took one of their advisors to my local appeal meeting but it was expensive and ultimately didn`t help.
Almost a year after my husband`s death I am still waiting for the decision on whether they will grant us an IRP (Independent Review Panel) hearing. My husband was CHC funded for over 2 years but then had funding withdrawn because his needs had changed (i.e. he had deteriorated !). I am still fighting and so should you.
xx
I think most of the bases have been covered by others.
We have just been granted CHC a year after we were denied funding.
What helped a lot was the DN-sending the initial checklist and a volunteer from the hospice (also a nurse) who helps out with T attending the meeting. We insisted with CHC that they both be invited to attend the meeting along with a representative from the Social Services.
Remember, that majority wins in the scoring of the several domains, so the more multi-disciplinary the assessment group (specially the ones who are directly involve with caring for the patient) is, the better. There were several instances that the CHC assessor was out-voted by the group.
Also the more documentary evidence (including photos and videos, medical records, behavioural diaries, etc) made available, the better.
Assessments can get very intense and emotional, ours lasted for 4 hours..... but stay strong and firm.
Best of luck.
Mx
PS
Although we have been granted CHC a month ago, we are still waiting for a confirmation of the funding for the care package we require, but at least we’ve passed the first hurdle.
CHC
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