New Care Agency can't provide care

[NoCareNoFair]

This hasn't happened (yet) but I want to be prepared in case.

Mum has severe dementia. She is self funding. She currently has carers coming in several times a day through an agency. This agency has frequently been very poor in their care. Mum now needs Live in care, so I spoke to various agencies, had a visit from one and signed the paperwork with the agreement that they would start on Monday. I therefore gave the old agency notice and their visits will stop.

However, new agency is being terrible at communication and aren't responding to my emails (about setting up direct debit etc) and have not confirmed who will be starting on Monday (ie Jane will arrive at X time). Actually I have not heard from them in over a week. I am now very concerned that they haven't managed to find a live in carer and are going to let me down.

I am extremely stressed because if that happens, then Mum has no carers from Monday onwards. What happens in that situation? Is there somewhere I can arrange emergency care?? All the Live in Care agencies needed 2+ weeks to arrange carers.

Please give me some advice! And please be gentle, I feel like I am having a breakdown.

I’m sorry, this sounds absolutely awful.

Having been in a similar situation, we ended up using residential care. It was by far the best solution as (surprisingly) the care was far more consistent: live in care is such a tough job that people don’t tend to stick to it for long.

The benefit of familiarity of being at home soon became outweighed by the frequent changes and the sometimes questionable standards.

Im sure you’ve thought through that one, but wanted to add in my experience!

What a nightmare! I would be on the phone to the old agency begging for help whilst you sort this out.

For live in care, if you want to stay with that, we used myhometouch.com who were very good, but would need to assess your mums needs, so wouldn't step in immediately.

Best of luck.

So hopefully new care agency are coming on Monday, but I have little faith in them longer term.

I am looking at Nursing homes but wanted to try live in first as it is what my Mum would prefer

Have you seen the profile of who the live in will be?

If your mum is as advanced as you suggest I would be looking at residential care for her now. Live in carers has risk as what happens if the carer is ill ? The individual suddenly decides to leave ? Your mum doesn’t get on with the carer. It can be very difficult virtually impossible to get an immediate replacement and already you are stressed because of the lack of information from the care co. We found that our relative got far better and more consistent care in a residential home and it was easier to ensure ongoing care as they declined, no falling off a cliff when live in carers suddenly wasn’t viable any more. A friend insisted on life in care for a relative and had ongoing problems as their relative deteriorated and adaptations were regularly required to the care. It was then heart breaking for her when they had to move their relative into residential care which badly confused and upset her relative. Personally would be looking at residential care now rather than wait.

Hopefully if there is any problems with the live in carer, the agency will provide cover.

I am going to look at nursing homes, but I need to at least try the live in care first. All the agencies offer it so it must work some of the time. I am going to visit the care homes in the next week or so as with the live in carer in place I will have the flexibility to do that.

She would be very distressed to move into a care home at the moment. She is rapidly losing her grasp on reality, so I can't see she would find it more distressing in a couple of weeks or months. Less distressing if anything.

Most of the problem is that I don't know how bad my Mum is. I mean, I know she's bad, but I don't know if she has weeks, months or years left.

Ideally, I would like the live in carer to just be able to care for her and for the end to come quickly and peacefully in her home where she's lived for 45 years. That was her request when she wasn't as bad. I need to at least give her the chance for that to happen.