Finding a High Care Nursing Home Place

[kengillard]

I'm in the process of finding a placement for my OH, who has dementia, in a High Care Nursing home.  It's all new and confusing to me and frustrating....so thought I'd ask if anyone is interested in my day to day inquiries and answers I've found (or not!)  Might make it easier for someone else when it comes to their time to do the same?

[azureline**]

Not sure if this is near enough to you but they do have vacancies and they may be able to tell you of a closer one.

High Care (Nursing Home)Features: Permanency (Permanent).
Fees: No bond required - fees per Govt schedule.
Description: Airconditioned single room with en-suite. Please phone Jacqui on 07 5446 5096 for inspection/bookings.

Amarina Aged Care Coolum Beach

[vampire-teddy]

are you near to a capital city?  my father in law and father were in the same nursing home.  my father passed away recently but FIL is still there.  it is a good one and we are/were very happy with the care.  it is in the western suburbs of brisbane.  I can let you know the name if you are anywhere near.  there was no bond for either.  my dad only paid a daily fee because his only income was the pension.  we pay a higher fee for FIL because he has some assets.

it is a difficult and confusing time.  

[banoras]

Gil, 

This thread has me in tears this morning..Been through it with my mum, my father couldn't handle the situation, so I had a battle with him as well. That ended in a tradegy, not to be retold anywhere here. 

Your OH will get great care, the process getting there is hard, thats where the ACAT team comes in.  

After that, who cares for you? Not only in the physical sense, but the mental. YOU will need a support system, as many understanding family and friends as you can muster.  One step at a time, take care.  

[kengillard]

One thing I was told by the Team Leader of the Transition Care programme, was that centrelink determine how much he'll have to pay...seeing they have all our financial details because of the pension, I'm expecting that to be straight forward.   Knowing centrelink tho, It wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't.

Morning all.

That seems a high price to pay Az?  Is it a privately run place?

[banoras]

There is a great book out

AGED CARE,, WHO CARES?, WHERE? HOW & HOW MUCH? by Rachel Lane and Noel Whittaker. (Noel is a financial adviser, you might have seen his columns in various newspapers)

Your local library should have a copy, if not, they usually can order it in from another library.  Libraries are .often  open on Saturdays til noon.

Another eye-opening book is FUNERAL RIGHTS. I know that is macabre to speak of here, but it has such useful knowledge, that the funeral directors do not wish us "ordinany man in the street" to know.  

Complete library catalogues are available online, and books can be ordered online. 

[punch*drunk]

Gill, the centrelink assets test was pretty straight forward, took about 3 weeks to process though and I'm pretty sure thats about standard. I would recommend getting straight onto that.

Once you have it, apply for any and all of the homes you like whether they have vacancies or not, even some of the ones with higher rates will take in people who cant afford the full amount. The manager where my dad is kept subtley suggesting that dad would need the full amount of bond, but he was approved with a lot less, I almost didnt bother applying there because she gave me the impression he wouldnt be accepted.

So even if you think they simply wont accept him on the minimum rate, try anyway.

When I filled out the assests test, I included things like an online valuation of his car, insurance papers for his caravan with the value etc, anything that made it easier for them and less likely to have them send it back asking for more information. Include as much documentation as you can.

[azureline**]

---

@kengillard wrote:

One thing I was told by the Team Leader of the Transition Care programme, was that centrelink determine how much he'll have to pay...seeing they have all our financial details because of the pension, I'm expecting that to be straight forward.   Knowing centrelink tho, It wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't.

Morning all.

That seems a high price to pay Az?  Is it a privately run place?

---

I made an error with that, it was for 3 weeks, as he has only been there a month today. I thought it looked odd after I posted it so went to check, lol.

He is in a Churches of Christ Care home. Lovely home, we were lucky to get a place there, I had previously applied there but at that time, no vacancies. I called in one day last month to ask again and 2 days later he moved in 🙂

It is about 900m from our home.

[soul_art]

Hi gil, I agree that I'm sure the info posted here will be of help to others, so please keep posting with all the ups and downs I'm sure are to come (()).

I think the feeling of guilt needs to be discussed too.  It must be such a relief when a partner/father etc is placed in care.  If that also comes with guilt for feeling like that, I think it's pretty normal, but the care of someone with dementia is just too much for one person no matter how much love is there.

[punch*drunk]

Soul, my sister felt guilty about it. I had to stress to her it was for dads safety, he simply couldnt live alone any longer, he'd already lost 15-20kg and missed months of tablets he should have been taking for his diabetes.

If there was any guilt for me, it was not noticing how bad he'd got until it had gone that far. We'd seen him cooking and eating lunch, so it just didnt occur to us that he wasnt eating dinner, we thought his weight loss was some kind of illness or diabetes related. Same with the medication, none of us thought to check it, we just didnt think it had progressed from constantly repeating himself to the inability to care for himself properly.

What it showed is that they can lie (although not intentionally probably) so convincingly that you can believe they are coping better than they really are. Gills case is different of course because its her partner and that is a whole different set of challenges, but if anyone reading this has an elderly, or even not so elderly, relative living alone they should thoroughly check that they are coping ok. Dont necessarily believe everything they tell you, count their medications and even check their fridge if you have to.

[kengillard]

that's so true Punch....His mother went the same way....she was living on her own and one day I went to visit and discovered the fridge was almost bare and she'd forgotten how to use a can opener, and was gouging open tins with a screw driver...also had forgotten how to open a tissue box on top ....instead ripped the end off...little things like that.  We'd been giving her a $20 note every week to supplement her pension and when she moved into a nursing home we found $3000 in $20 notes taped under the bottom of a kitchen chair!

I don't feel guilty about it.....as I've known for about 3 years now that this was coming one day....I've had time to adjust to the thought.

But it has happened so quickly really.