Care Home Fees

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I realise this is going to differ across country but trying to get an idea.
My parents live Dorset/Somerset border.

My father was taken ill four weeks ago and is still in hospital, he was sole carer of my mother who had to go into respite care when he was admitted.
Very worried that he will ever recover to be honest but if he does he will need carers or to go in a home.He will also not be able to go back to looking after mum so she needs to stay in a home.
Nightmare, so stressed as i have a sick teen daughter to cope with too. There are also bills that have been left unpaid, found them when i went down to sort through their financial documents. Also dealing with insurance claim as dad had car accident two weeks before hospital admittance.
They own their home and POA is going through activation so i will have access to their bank soon.

I’m sorry to hear about your dad I’m not a million miles away from you and costs here vary from £500 to £2000 per week with a lovely one coming in at around £850. You may get a cheaper deal by having them together sharing a room if you can find somewhere that meets both of their needs. Sorry if I’m telling you things you know but homes are either nursing or residential (sometimes dual registered) depending on whether they have registered nurses. Nursing homes are more expensive. However, assessments will be done to ascertain what nursing needs your dad needs as opposed to care needs and which category he requires. Also, it may be worth looking at domiciliary care for them both with the support of district nurses if needed. Once again, when considering a package it is often less than 2 separate packages, as to put it simply it doesn’t take twice the time to prepare 2 meals for example. You can also get 24hr live in care but this is upping the cost somewhat and this works differently depending on who is funding it.
There will be a discharge coordinator at the hospital who can talk to you about funding, how this works, how much help you’ll get, or any payments he will be eligible for.

My mum spent her final weeks in a lovely "very busy with activities and visits" home. We were paying £1,400/week (dementia wings we're about 20% more). That was in Sussex and it was probably the nicest home in the area.

It is so stressful coping alone. Try giving your local Age UK a call. It won't be new to them.

I hope it all works out for you.

@Madcats

My mum spent her final weeks in a lovely "very busy with activities and visits" home. We were paying £1,400/week (dementia wings we're about 20% more). That was in Sussex and it was probably the nicest home in the area.

It is so stressful coping alone. Try giving your local Age UK a call. It won't be new to them.

I hope it all works out for you.

Hi would you mind telling me which home this was please? We are in Sussex and I think I will be looking for a home for DM in the not too distant future. A personal recommendation would be helpful. Feel free to message if you don't want to post here.

Please get advice from your parents LA. There may be many things that could be put in place to support your parents before they need to think about alternative care.

Can only do my stuck record thing - Finance LPA is one thing, but do get LPA in Health and Welfare too. Any kind of nursing or dementia-style care and imo you're looking at nothing less than a grand a week, probably more like £1,300 a week. I am in Surrey, btw, and that was the case with my late Mum who died in Oct 2017.
By nursing care, it doesn't have to be intense. Just some pills per day, and needing changing twice a day or something, needs feeding and so on. My Mum had late stage Parkinson's, was fairly quiet and cooperative.
My experience of both Surrey and Sussex who seem to have some kind of mutual deal going on in terms of being highly dodgy - the county council social workers oddly seem to 'head for the border' and set up shop in Sussex when it suits them, probably to avoid some flak coming their way... I would not engage with them unless you have LPA in Health and Welfare. You might also check out the Care Quality Commission stats on the Covid 19 death rates on care homes, go to its website. The home I was trying to get Mum out of - with bugger all help from our awful MP Chris Grayling - in Epsom & Ewell was Priory Court and I was charmed to learn it had 25 deaths, that's very high as most listed do not even reach double figures to be fair. That all said, you can't trust the CQC - imo it's a corrupt regulator - and the Covid deaths in care homes are said to be higher than they let on, acc to a Sunday Telegraph story over the weekend.
Find out about visiting restrictions due to Covid or anything else at the new home, but the CQC is not much cop, like many regulators it's there to help the business, not you.

@OnthePiste DM went to Bowes House in Hailsham (close(ish) to Eastbourne.

One of the things I liked, as DB was the only outsider allowed near DM and I live miles away, was that the manager(?) took plenty of photos of the residents.

They made DM isolate for a week before moving her into the main area.

We'd held off enquiring about a home precisely because of the quarantine period. With hindsight she would have had a much better lockdown with staff and activities available each day.