Mum wants to leave care home

[Meowmy]

Hi my mum has been in a care home since august after a stroke and has dementia. Was deemed not to have mental capacity and hospital a social services said she needed to go into care at the best interests meeting. It was not an option for her to go home so I found her a lovely home. Ever since she has been there she had been wanting to leave. But now the home have ring me and said that the need to notify the local authority of this. Has anyone had experience of this? I cannot care for her and social services have already said they cannot provide enough care for her if I don't.

Research 'Deprivation of liberty' link here for Alzheimer's society website
which is what I would assume they're referring to - basically where someone lacks capacity and wants to leave their current environment it looks at how to meet their needs and keep them safe. It's not saying she will be able to leave - it's in her best interests to stay in the home but she can't rationally see that since she lacks capacity. There's some paperwork they can do related to this so that effectively she's not being held against her will without proof that it's best for her. I hope that makes sense. It must be really tough for you

If she doesn't have capacity to decide where she lives but is insistent that she wants to leave, the home are required to apply for a DOLS (Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards) order from the local authority. This is a very longwinded assessment but it is to ensure that she is being deprived of her liberty ie being made to stay at the care home for a good reason and not just because it's the easiest or cheapest thing to do.

I suspect this is what your mum's care home mean by needing to information the local authority. Don't panic - it's not the same as them saying that they can't care for her or that you will need to take her back home and care for her yourself. It's just the legal process. The upshot will almost certainly be that she stays put but everyone has the correct bits of paperwork.

Ah, cross posted

I haven't had to do this, but when someone lacks capacity and doesn't want to be where they are, you need to apply for a deprivation of liberty order.
Essentially they mean that everyone responsible for their care has determined that they can't make decisions about where they live for their own safety.
You need to contact your mums social worker to get this going.

It's the responsibility of the home to apply which it sounds like they are doing - you shouldn't have to instigate it yourself and it doesn't have to involve a social worker.

Thanks guys. It's all a lot clearer now. The way the telephone call made it sound was she didn't want to be here so we're talking to the authority about sending her out! Ps Love the name CMOT! Pratchett lol

Well its possible that they said that because they were being a bit incompetent If it comes up again remind them how she didn't have capacity and went there under a best interests decision and have they considered applying for a DOLS order?

Yeh the home are doing all the form filling. They said they just had to inform me. Do you know if they generally stick to the 21 days to get it done?

Ha no! I've applied for a few DOLS orders. Local authorities are drowning in them.

What usually happens is the person applying gets a letter back, acknowledging your application, saying they are snowed under and won't meet any of the deadlines and to carry on as you are until they get back to you.

How long it takes to get an actual assessment I have no idea - I've only ever applied for urgent ones and due to the nature of my patients (very poorly and approaching end of life) they've always died before we even got close to the assessment. How long it would take for a non-urgent assessment I have no idea.

The whole DOLS thing can be a bit double edged.

Yes, there is a backlog of applications. However, in an emergency situation, the care home can rush it through. What this also therefore means is, 'we can now stop relatives taking their mother/whoever out of the home for the day or for any reason at all. We have control over the situation'. Now, this doesn't seem to be the case with you, but if you've been smeared by a care home, and social services are in on it, you could find yourself on the wrong end of a DOLS.

Generally, the care home is obliged to inform the relatives about this before they apply for DOLS, and take you thru it, but in an 'emergency' situ, they don't have to, though they are obliged to tell you after the fact, when it is a fait accompli, a done deal.

A care home can fit you up by reporting you to social services. Your Mum will be put on Safeguarding, and that is the pretext for an emergency DOLS by that home or the next one without your consent or any consultation.

But why would social services do that? Ah, how naive you are. I envy you.

My dad had a Dols assessment within days of moving into a care home. He been in hospital for several weeks previously after being sectioned. The first part was done by a doctor then the second a few days later by a best interest assessor. The BIA rang to go through some things with me and I received copies of both assessments two weeks later. The BIA was really helpful and my comment and thoughts were put into his report. Dad has Alzheimer's and can become violent, he has no understanding of where he is needs help with personal care and as I said had been detained under the mental health act, even with his problems he will be reassessed after three months.