Posting for any advice or insight which would be gratefully received.
MIL currently in hospital after a fall resulting in fractured shoulder. Also has dementia, limited mobility (now further curtailed by shoulder injury as can now longer use walker/zimmer), is incontinent and also generally very frail.
After just over a week in hospital they advised she was ready for discharge. They stated she would be fine with a care package of carers coming in four times a day to change her and move her from bed to chair then chair to bed. She would need to be confined to her bedroom at home. They said this would work as she was not attempting to move from chair/bed in hospital.
FIL, her primary carer, expressed that he was not able to cope with her coming home at this point. Prior to fall she was coming to end of 6 week care package following a minor stroke in March. He and other family members disputed the hospital assertion that she wasn’t trying to move from chair/bed in hospital. She has been. Is constantly removing sling as forgets she has a fractured shoulder. Dementia symptoms currently much worse in hospital due to delirium and drowsiness from painkillers. We all think it’s just totally unrealistic for them both to be confined in an upstairs bedroom as we don’t think she can be left alone so in effect FIL would be placed into an almost 24/7 caring role save 4 x 40 mins carer visits per day.
The hospital staff said our only option was to request a social services assessment, which we have. MIL remains in hospital whilst we wait on this. Since this there have been a few other incidents in hospital which have confirmed our view that her being discharged is unrealistic - passing out when physios try to get her to walk, pulled out a cannula overnight leading to blood loss and passing out. Doctors also saying she’s not making much progress, there are other things that have cropped up which they are investigating eg infection. Yet in same breath saying they think she should go home and would be discharged if a social
services assessment hadn’t been requested by the family. None of this makes sense to us.
Grateful for any insight on what we might expect next, tips on how best to manage decisions. FIL torn between wanting to try and bring her home vs going into a care home, but worried that if he says yes to the care at home package he’ll essentially be left alone to cope with a very difficult scenario.
Sorry this is long. Thanks for reading.