Where can I find legally qualified person who knows about this sort of thing? Is it expensive? I don't have much money. I tried calling Citizen's Advice, but after being kept on hold for ages, the call was disconnected.
Yes, she is Council funded, with our family paying for extra services if needed.
I can cope with all of her medical issues, I've done it all before. I almost kidnapped her four days ago, when I took her out for a walk in the horrendous all-plastic care home garden.
There are multiple issues with the care home, and it does sound as though no progress has been made by the care worker, and long continuous pressure will need to be applied in order to make minimal changes which won't improve her experience of living there any better. Firstly there's the doorbell to the care home, which for some reason has been tied into the same system which residents use to call for help, via a button pad next to their bed. Why on earth has a call for help from a resident been combined with the doorbell? How on earth are the nurses supposed to discern one from the other? It's the same "BING BONG!" noise for a potentially life threatening situation and a request for entry. The nurses answer neither category of call anyway, and the alarm units sound continuously day and night, keeping my mother awake. There's one in every corridor, and they all go off at once, once they start they never get switched off. They sounded for the entire 6 hours I was there. Moving her to another room will have little reduction effect on this highly antisocial loud and continuous noise, because there are huge gaps under every door. The doors are transparent to the noise. The only escape from this godawful din is to leave the care home.
While I was there, a nurse dropped one of my mother's pills and it rolled under the dining table - I had to point a pocket torch under the table to help him find it, and he promptly administered it to my mother when he did. Hardly hygienic.
My mother is verbally abused every day by another resident when they sit down for breakfast, lunch and dinner... because they always place the abusive resident directly next to her. She screamed abuse at my mother and threw a drink at her, while I was watching. I recorded audio and can prove that happened. One of the other residents told me that happens every day, and she can't understand why the abusive resident is placed at the same table next to my mother and everyone else, every mealtime. The care manager denied the abuse ever happens. Quite honestly, it was touch and go the other day, I almost took her home.
What effect could contacting the care home directors have? They would likely deny abuse happened too. I suppose they could "Look into" hiring a receptionist, instead of combining a critical call for help with the doorbell, but I expect they are trying t o keep their operating costs down.
I've started a complaint about the care worker, she may not ever speak to me again. She also objected about my recording all of our phone conversations, like the care services do mine. I'll go to the Ombudsman if I have to, for all the good that would do. The care worker selected this care home with no input from me, this awful care home in the wrong city 100 miles away from my home.
