Respite Care Tips Please

[Daffodil41]

Hi, my mum has CBD and has two carers four times per day currently. She cannot walk unaided, use the toilet unaided (difficult even with help) and although she can chew and swallow ok at the moment, she needs to be fed as she doesn’t have the coordination to eat herself. My brother also lives in the house and is there overnight for emergencies.

In the summer he is planning to go away and due to work I can’t stay for a whole week so we thought it would be good to try some respite care in a residential facility.

Mum is based in Worcestershire so if anyone has any recommendations of nursing homes that may offer respite please can you let me know? Also any general tips to consider when looking around?

Thank you

[Willowden]

Hi,

I don’t have any recommendations in your area but can give you our respite experience. If appropriate for your mum, try and find somewhere that has separate nursing and dementia floors. The place I chose for respite didn’t and as most of the residents were living with dementia this was very overwhelming for mum.

Make sure staff understand she doesn’t have dementia. I told them but still found a lot of staff spoke to her as if she did.

Overall it wasn’t a very positive experience but it provided useful pointers for when mum finally did move permanently into a home. I think mum found the 24hr care reassuring despite it not being the right place for her.

Good luck with your search, it’s a hard thing to do but it’s important that both you and your brother get a break.

[Daffodil41 in reply to Willowden]

thank you for the pointers. Much appreciated

[RW22]

Morning.We are Worcestershire too. If you have connections with the Primrose Hospice they will offer good advice and maybe suggestions. Or your local hospice (Worcestershire is a big place).

Good luck.

[Daffodil41 in reply to RW22]

thank you. We are in the Wyre Forest so I’ll take a look at the local hospice

[Scottoppy]

We tried a nursing home for my wife's first respite stay and it was not a success, she hated it and as a result less than cooperative. Last month I took another weeks respite and instead of a home the carers she knows and trusts stayed in the house with her, she was not disrupted and her routine was maintained. Check with the company that provides her care and explore the options of her staying in her own home. We found it worked very well. Good luck.

[Daffodil41 in reply to Scottoppy]

thank you. That could certainly be an option too. I’ll explore that idea.

[AnnesHusband]

We're in Worcs. Anne (CBD) has been to Mowbray Nursing Home in Malvern a few times, arranged through Social Services and the last time through CHC, so they now have experience of somebody with CBD.

[Daffodil41 in reply to AnnesHusband]

ooh lovely thank you. Mum has friends in Malvern and knows the area so that could definitely be an option.