Kate Garroway-Care at home costs

Anniebach

Why is it assumed all decisions were taken by Derek’s wife, and
I didn’t find the documentary intrusive

We are on the same page Annie. I'm quite saddened by a lot of these comments. I don't think anything suggested he hadn't got mental capacity and even if he hadn't, he should still be supported to make choices around his care, it's how it ethically works

I so agree Jane , seems some here know Derek’s needs and wishes more than his wife did

Assuming Derek had mental capacity to make the decision, I suspect he desperately wanted to be at home with his family. Most people don't opt for a care home in these circumstances especially if they were young enough to feel that they had time to recover more.

It's not really necessary to have full capacity to express the wish to be in your own home.

Quite a lot of people are not at 100 percent capacity level in all areas of their lives.

Fluctuating capacity should be taken into account, too, and made allowances for.

fluctuating capacity. You are so right MissA and this can be completely misunderstood.

My mother is cared for at home and is physically disabled after falling downstairs, has advanced dementia and has been assessed as lacking capacity.

Previously when she was ill also with dementia, but before her condition deteriorated so badly, she would never agree to care in a nursing home. However the social worker said that if it is decided by relatives (me) and social worker that her needs will be better met in nursing home, it is considered that she can still have capacity to refuse if aware, even on planned day of admission.

I do hope it never comes to that, for both you and your mother.

Bless her for sticking to her guns.

Not easy, is it?

While I do feel for this woman, I am fed up of her moaning. Many thousands much poorer look after loved ones without complaining to the world.

Bea65

fancythat

My last job before retiring was in a unit attempting to join adult social care with community nursing. It was hell. Assessments and understanding of care needs varied wildly

Can you explain more about this please?
I dont think I am properly understanding.
And I think it is an important subject.

Am also interested to know because I always understood that adult social care was under the Community Health Care...maybe its different practices in different NHS postcodes..my brother has been in a an expensive nursing home now for 2 yrs although he doesn't have specific nursing needs, my sister has just gone into a care home and she does have specific nursing needs...very confusing...

Adult Social Care is exactly what it says it is social care which is means tested.
Community Health Care is also what it says, It is the Health team under NHS and therefore not means tested.
So when you come out of hospital you usual have a few weeks continued care (not CHC) in particular if you are living by yourself, this is free and covered by the Community Health Team. After that it becomes Social Care when you then start to pay if you have more than £23500.
I don't personally think Derek's story did carers any favours, carers do not generally live like Kate. Can you imagine pushing a hoist through the mess which was constantly on Kate's floor, likewise cooking a meal in the kitchen with hardly any clear surfaces. She is pretending to be tiding up, folded one blanket, threw it back in the pile on the settee and threw a few more cushions around. Carers are exhausted like Kate for sure, but most of us manage to keep a reasonably tidy home at the same time. We simply have to with all the people constantly coming and going.
Derek could speak and feed himself almost up to the end and was conscious too, not in and out of consciousness, which is one of the main factors for CHC. I doubt he would have received the treatment he had at home even in hospitable, it was beyond what can be awarded anyone who does not have Kate's millions. She chose to spend it which is wonderful, but did she go too far? Oxygen chamber at home and travelling abroad 3 times with everyone that was all her choice. Don't get me wrong, I think I might have done the same in her position, but to expect it all to be paid for is totally unrealistic. She said she had to buy Derek's pads on Amazon because she did not know where and who to ask. It would have taken one phone call which the carer could have made and they would have known. I am sure the carer knew anyway. He was definitely not the average domiciliary carer was he? Not to say most of them do not know.
I hope her interviews will have more impact and be a true Ambassador for carers, we can certainly do with some changes, but I don't think Derek's story will achieve that.

Curtaintwitcher

I hope people are not campaigning for this to be available on the NHS, which was never intended for end of life care.
Although we all want the best for our loved ones, the standard of care should be dependent on income. This is something else we should all consider when organising our own finances.

I think you phrased that badly, I am hoping you did not mean how it reads. I agree that Derek's outstanding standard of care is only due to their unusual financial circumstances.
But I do not agree that people less well of should have poor care, everyone one should have the same care, Derek himself agreed, he constantly campaigned for equality. The system is a post code lottery at the moment, this is what is unfair. Social Care and Health care comes out of 2 different pots at the moment despite us having come a long way with joining up, we still have a long way to go. If you have Health needs they should be covered by the NHS regardless where you live and who you are. If you have Social needs it should be means tested one you qualify, this too should be the same for everyone. People can top up as much as they like that is totally up to them. However, you cannot top up once CHC is awarded, that is yet another issue.

Kate has millions yet is in debt

welbeck

i think the point being made is that if you are self-funding due to personal assets, they there is no incentive for social services to suggest CHC, as they might if trying to push the cost away from their budget.
as long as they are not having to pay, they don't care.

I have read your post so many times but still can make sense of it. Social Services do not pay for CHC,, the NHS do, so if you are self funding you either pay yourself of the NHS do if you qualify for CHC, Social Services does not come in to it at all.

NHS Continuing Health Care for those whose needs are assessed as primarily nursing is NOT known Community Health Care. The cost is borne by the NHS.

Reablement Care for up to 6weeks can be provided after discharge from hospital, after assessment as needing further recovery/rehabilitation.

Adult Social Care is organised by the Local Authority Social Services Dept. and is means tested.

I'm pretty sure Kate must have funded the Mexico trips herself?

As for the rest, well, we have lots of disabled people where I live, and a good few are out and about, with oxygen and breathing tubes, plus two carers, so it can and is done.

The criticism of Kate is so unkind, so easy to be judgmental, dismissing the fact she loved him

And he, her.

That much was very, very clear, regardless of his capacity.

I'm glad they got so much extra time together.

I think people are very critical of carers if they haven't lived day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year doing it. People seem to think they could do a better job. It is so easy to sit on the sidelines imagining how much better you would be, how you would not complain or moan or get upset or frustrated. You would spring out of bed every day and polish your halo, it would be such fun and there would be no worry about yourself, no worrying what will happen if I get ill. What will happen if I can't afford this, that and the other.

The simplistic nature of some of the replies, oh sorting continence products off the nhs is just one phonecall etc. It is really quite demeaning to those of us who have struggled to work (must work harder etc) and have to deal with frustrating systems and benefits and deal with professionals who think you should just get up an hour earlier, go to bed an hour later on top of caring.

There are lots of carers and people who are ill or disabled who are our neighbours. They live isolated lives in many cases, they don't need to be judged and Kate doesn't need to be judged either. I think people are uncomfortable with people being honest about difficult their lives might be and I don't know where that attitude stems from

I am just gong to add. People really underestimate the work of paid carers and support workers too. They do a very skilled and complex job and it's painted as 'unskilled' employment. It's a travesty it is so undervalued and so underpaid

Continuing Health Care has 10 domains, not only the 2 you mention, Win. They are also interwoven so you may score across several domains. You do not need to be fed to score highly, if you are at risk of inhaling food so you are in danger of becoming ill from pneumonia and it is not predictable you may score highly. If you are at risk of falling you may score highly. Each Domain is marked from A-C and you have to get so many A's and a number of B's to qualify for CHC. Each health authority may determine these at different levels so there is an inconsistency there. We cannot possibly know if Derek might have qualified with another Health Authority. It beggars belief though that at some point on his discharge from hospital, he didn't qualify initially. I know people who have fought to get it and won. The Ombudsman has a very different view to the Health Authorities.

Farzanah

NHS Continuing Health Care for those whose needs are assessed as primarily nursing is NOT known Community Health Care. The cost is borne by the NHS.

Reablement Care for up to 6weeks can be provided after discharge from hospital, after assessment as needing further recovery/rehabilitation.

Adult Social Care is organised by the Local Authority Social Services Dept. and is means tested.

Spot on, you put itbetter than I did

I find Kate Garraway really interesting but having made the decision to bring Derek home she must have had some idea of the cost. She has her regular TV and radio slots and also the books and documentaries all of which must bring in large sums of money. She lives in a very nice home and also has a second home much, much nicer than almost all of us could ever dream of. I hope she doesn’t expect us to feel sorry for her situation as I certainly don’t.

The point of the programme was to highlight care issues across the board; not for sympathy from anyone.

I very much doubt she even gave a thought to what others think or thought of her.

If she's that ashamed she could downsize from her £2m+ house and pay it off. I'm sure a vast number of people would just love to have that as an option...

Ashamed?
Of what?

icanhandthemback

Continuing Health Care has 10 domains, not only the 2 you mention, Win. They are also interwoven so you may score across several domains. You do not need to be fed to score highly, if you are at risk of inhaling food so you are in danger of becoming ill from pneumonia and it is not predictable you may score highly. If you are at risk of falling you may score highly. Each Domain is marked from A-C and you have to get so many A's and a number of B's to qualify for CHC. Each health authority may determine these at different levels so there is an inconsistency there. We cannot possibly know if Derek might have qualified with another Health Authority. It beggars belief though that at some point on his discharge from hospital, he didn't qualify initially. I know people who have fought to get it and won. The Ombudsman has a very different view to the Health Authorities.

You are teaching your Grandma to suck eggs here I am afraid. I was a carer twice over for 11 years and got CHC for them both. I sadly know the domains inside out having filled them in myself and then gone through it all with the Social Worker again and again and eventually agreed on a compromise. My late husband was sadly rather like Derek but had no speech whatsoever and was only PEG fed. He was also totally paralysed. I was merely giving 2 examples as they are two of the main ones for qualifying.
I still feel Derek should not have qualified when he initially came home from hospital for the reasons I stated and he was constantly improving by her own words with a few ups and downs until the fatal time in December. When he became ill in December it was a matter of days before he died apparently and there was no time to apply even through the fast track channel. My late mother died from pneumonia caused by aspirating so yes I know all about that too well too.

MissAdventure

Ashamed?
Of what?

Being in debt which is what she said she was