Ranulph Fiennes - care home restrictions, DoLS ?

The key point for me is that more than one care home has raised concerns and when they did RF was then moved by his wife. That says to me there is an issue with his welfare than needs attention.

It is not unusual for famous people to be in care homes, particularly if they’ve had dementia. Pauline Collins springs to mind, because she died about the time mum moved into hers so I remember it. There’s at least one residential home run by a charity that is specifically for old actors/actresses. You never see pictures or stories of these people in the media, and there’s no reason to suspect that RF would be any different from other residents in protecting his privacy. You can’t just waltz into these places, and in the dementia wings visitors have to be buzzed in and give an account of who they are. So it’s perfectly possible to protect someone from prurient interest, if that is the genuine reason for the moves, but I don’t believe that is the reason.

The quotes from people who have seen him recently are heartbreaking - “we just want to take him some chocolate and cheer him up and he was delighted to see me”. Anyone who’s visited a loved one in hospital or a care home and seen their face light up when they recognise you will know that feeling.

I mean, when it comes to care homes, there aren't many 'first resorts' - I found the Care Quality Commission regulator totally useless and frankly corrupt. Surrey Social Services corrupt. Local MP, erm, not necessarily on your side and they know in many political areas the Council is more powerful than they are, so will not intervene on your behalf. Oh, police will be rubbish, too.

It was an education, I'm telling you.

The papers are usually the last resort for most people. It’s a double edged sword that you go to once all other avenues are exhausted.

They did go to the police and social services

We seem to have forgotten that we are talking about a sector where Covid was seeded into care homes and scores of thousands wound up dead as a result. And nothing came of it in terms of follow-up. Normal rules do not apply.

It seems to me that since then there has been a dearth of the usual scandal stories about care homes - I mean, where would you go after that? It was a total massacre.

The exception for some reason seems to be bad care homes in Scotland, which the BBC seems keen on exposing, but I'd have thought Scottish ones might be better than those in the South East, as I thought adult social care is generally better there.

I recall a Twitter thread two or so years ago where a son could not even locate which care home his mother had been discharged to - he ran up against a total 'computer says no' blank as successive care homes refused to confirm or deny and the hospital wouldn't tell him. There was no difficult back story regarding him, he was just a bloke trying to find out where his mum was. He had to get his MP involved. Madness.

If you don't know if there's a problem or not and you report it to the police and they investigate and then find there's no problem then yes, it's taken care of.

There's a second agency who are also worth trying.

Selling a story based on insinuation to the press and setting up a go fund me, is certainly not the answer.

Well. If only that were the case. That’s like saying that if you’ve reported something to the police / any other official agency then it will have been taken care of… what a wonderful utopian world that would be.

It’s been mentioned in this case that they have tried that route and did not get anywhere, and it has also been suggested that that route very rarely is helpful anyway.

I have no idea whether RF is being mistreated or not, but this specific option has been discussed.

It seems they've done so, several of them and don't feel they are getting anywhere

Which is pretty good evidence there is nothing majorly untoward going on.

It seems they've done so, several of them and don't feel they are getting anywhere, hence what is happening now. Even people who are not celebrities take this course if they can get any interest from the media, although of course much harder to engender.

Anyway, my point was that take away the fame and the title and the money and the very famous friends, you would still have a situation that would worry most if not all people if it involved someone they cared for.

Agree the responses would be very different.

Most would say "Go the office of the Public Guardian or the Police", almost nobody would say "Go to the papers".

It's easy for care homes to stop relatives/nuisance makers visiting by making out they are a danger to someone's person - if you are responsible for giving them drink and feeding them, for instance. Which, frankly, the care staff are not - if they won't do it you can't make them and two weeks of that and it's the morgue. So all it takes is one incident where your parent is struggling to swallow and they've got you! You can be barred - other tricks include allegations of 'abuse and intimidation' - they have a list of things they can cook up, with the cooperation of Social Services.

I'm not sure any care home would exactly welcome celebs or journalists visiting, I mean it's just asking for trouble isn't it.

As for the police, they are highly unlikely to call anything out or side against the care home, which is likely to be in cahoots with their mates at the Council via social services. All kinds of illegal behaviour went on in Surrey care homes and Surrey Police didn't want to know, they never do. Not unless it's some rogue staff member caught on camera doing something particularly egregious.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdrsYnWAgUP/?stkn=MTlpZjZ4aG90eXl6dw==

I do wonder if this situation appeared on here written from the perspective of totally non famous people whether some responses would be different.

" I'm concerned for my stepfather. He's in his 80s and has been in my life since I was 10, sadly he now has Parkinsons disease. I'm NC with my mother for a number of reasons but have always had a good relationship with him.

For the last 2 years she has refused to allow his many friends and family members to see him or speak to him and even to know where he is. We've discovered that she's put him in 3 residential homes in different areas under false names and we understand from the owner of one home they had concerns about how his medication was being controlled by her and the validity of his DNR. They reported to the care authorities who confirmed what had happened was not legal as there was no DOLS in place but we're otherwise getting nowhere with eg the OPG. The police say they've checked but this was done before she moved him back home recently, only he's not in the house but a prefabricated building outside

A couple of people who did manage to get into the homes to see him reported that he was very happy to see them and expressed wishes to see others in his circle "

He tried to divorce her in 2008 but she pulled all sorts of tricks out of a hat including bribing him with a sex video she had ,allegedly filmed .

@AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta Thank you - got it!

The whole thing stinks. And now that some care homes raised concerns it seems his wife has pulled him out of a care home and is putting up a portacabin(s) for him and his carer to live in. So isolating him further and removing him from safeguarding and scrutiny. I hope the local social services are over this and protect him.

So it was a conspiracy when he was in a carehome and now its a conspiracy that he's at home.

It was clear they couldn't achieve privacy in a care home so I guess home is the only option.

Now if he stays in he'll be presented as a "prisoner" and if he wanders the roads he'll be considered neglected and if someone is with him it will be presented as not being allowed out without being spied on.

He should have been left alone from the start.The police checked, that was all that was ever needed.

Lady F has a long history of obtaining money by deception, isolating friends and family. She has even changed her name a few times. Ranulph is apparently back home on the family estate, two modular " homes" have been erected; one for Ranulph and obesity for his carer. Strange because their house is comodious yo day the least

King Charles hasn't asked to visit. King Charles' name has been dragged into this to make it a better story. The quotes from King Charles are one word quotes total absent of context from a third party. They're not even claiming to be a direct quote from him.

I find the legal aspect interesting too. My dad is in a care home and they would not keep him without a DoLs in place - the LA assessor tried to say he didn't need one after Cheshire West overturn but the care home said no, they still wanted one. He does try to break out from time to time....

I have an LPA for him. I get calls about anything to do with his care, when the GP visits, if he has a nose bleed, etc.

I am actually very surprised care homes will take someone in RF's circumstances - false names etc. It was the care home that flagged to me that my dad's birth certificate has a spelling mistake and I needed to prove what name he went by.

I haven't needed to block access to my dad but I do get a call if someone other than his regular visitors come to see him (his ex carer came, for example) but it is more for information than permission. However, I think if I said no to visitors they would enforce it and the receptionist is beyond those found in a GP surgery so good luck to any triers... 😂

Its in the link I posted. According to Mrs Finnes KC hates Ranulph even though he tried to enquire after his well-being and Camilla has helicopters flown over the home of the Finnes on purpose to annoy them.

As well as the others on the list, also improbable in the extreme.

Haha! You think King Charles is going to visit and sell his story to the press? Yeah, right.

why

A cynic might say because the papers give you money and publicity allows you to set up a gofundme.