Can someone advise re accessing extra-care housing in new area

[christinarossetti19]

Long story short, my mother's health has deteriorated rapidly over the last year.

She now has maximum care available at home (lifeline, carers x4 a day, district nurses) but isn't coping. Lives alone.

She's suddenly become amenable to the idea of moving to some sort of extra-care housing (if they can meet her needs, it might need to be a care home) nearer me.

I think it's a good idea, but how do I go about setting the wheels in motion?

TIA

Will she be self funding?

Tbh it might be better to look at Residential Care. Sheltered accommodation is very strict about care required. If she is already needing more than the 4 care calls they actually might not accept her.

Making one move to a care home rather than two might be preferable.
Check on cqc for assessments and ask for recommendations from everyone you know.
Don’t be swayed by faculties she will not be able to use. Speak to her social worker.

Extra care housing is going to provide very little more than she is already getting at home. Although there will be carers/a warden available on site this will usually only be during the day, and whilst they will respond in an emergency they won't be popping in between scheduled care visits.

If she has night time care needs and the local authority are the commissioners of the care package currently then this is their tipping point usually for residential care.

The rules around 'ordinary residence' and how this might be transferred (or not) between local authorities is best discussed with her current local authority depending on her situation and what she decides to do.

I would suggest though that most local authority extra care housing has eligibility criteria in place which prioritises people already within that local authority area over people from outside the area. Unless it's somewhere where there isn't much demand she might find it difficult to be offered a place unless it's a private arrangement.

Thanks all. I'm not sure about her funding - she has some savings (probably less than £20K and owns a house which would be included as assets).

Night-time care needs are an issue. She's been using her Lifeline a lot in recent months (when she's not been in hospital). She only managed four days at home after her last but one hospital admission, and was discharged on Wednesday not really coping.

There seem to be two social workers involved - one managing discharge and someone who called to 'assess her needs' actually while she was in hospital.

I'll contact the one that I've got an email address for, and ask her who would be best for me to contact.

I live in London, so unlikely to be a 'low demand' area.

But very useful info, thanks once again.

The threshold to qualify for funding is very very high. Realistically you're probably looking at self funded places. So it's just (!) a case of visiting a few to see where she'd be happiest, then selling the house to pay for it. Be warned costs are eye-watering. MIL pays £1000 a week and that's SE but not London.

@titchy

The threshold to qualify for funding is very very high. Realistically you're probably looking at self funded places. So it's just (!) a case of visiting a few to see where she'd be happiest, then selling the house to pay for it. Be warned costs are eye-watering. MIL pays £1000 a week and that's SE but not London.

That's not entirely true.

It's really difficult to get fully funded continuing healthcare funding, but the local authority will happily assess anyone for social care funding for residential care, however the outcome of that might be that the person is a self funder or 'full cost' payer if they have over £24k in assets or savings.

If she meets the criteria for residential care (and there's every chance she will based on what OP has said) then it's always worth getting the local authority involved to arrange he placement as then they can apply a 12 week property disregard and also set up a deferred payment if one is needed.

It's probably the social worker who called to assess her needs who you need to speak to not the one managing discharge.

If you are considering residential care in your area and she is likely to be a self funder/full cost payer at least initially then you can absolutely be proactive and have a look at care settings in your area so you have an idea of what options she has available.

Ask the social worker when you speak to them what they feel her level of care is likely to be - this may depend on what the district nurses are attending for currently as, it may be that it's actually nursing care rather than residential that is more appropriate.