Hospital dischare carers

[TheOpalFox]

My dads coming out of hospital with carers. Only for 6 weeks but I’m looking forward to a break
the question is. What do I do when they are here? As I quit my job to care for my dad .
also what happens when I wanna take my dad for lunch one day? Of coffee? And the carers are here? He’s fully mobile too but needs help with his meds and food
thks is all new to me . My dad had a heart attack last week so they honor 6
werks of carers . Thankyou

You have to work your day round them. Usually they help with personal care such as getting up and washing and facilitate him with making breakfast, lunch etc depending on timings. If they are due to come at lunchtime you might need to delay going out until they have been or cancel them.

Is it two visits per day?

They'll only be there for about 15 minutes. It won't affect you at all really. If it does, they will leave you a phone number where you can let them know if the visit isn't needed.

I'm surprised they have put carers in if he's fully mobile and lives with someone who can care for him?

Are they reablement carers?

Most Hospitals/Local authorities are usually very clear that the temporary care to support hospital discharge/reablement after hospital discharge is for UP TO six weeks, there is every chance it will be in for less than six weeks if it's found not to be needed earlier.

It’s because he’s got serious heart issues and leaky heart valvue
and they want to make sure he takes his new meds and he also is at risks of falls

And mentally he’s not great either :(

My wife was discharged from hospital last December. The hospital arranged for four visits every day.

If we want to go out I will tell the carers in the morning that we will not be in for their next visit. It works well. If we need to be out for the first visit I phone the office and tell them.

Ate they carers or nurses? Ime carers don’t do meds.

Tbh it would be a good time to go on holiday.

My wife has carers. They always check that I have given her medicine, if I had not they would do so. I sort it into a dossette box They have also put in her eye drops

I suspect it will be reablement carers, whilst they are initiated for 6 weeks if your Dad is doing well and improving they will reduce the visits down with the ultimate aim of stopping ( often before the 6 weeks are up). If it becomes obvious he’s going to need longer term care they will look at how this is managed ( presumably you?)

By managing the patients they are seeing the carers can create space to care for new patients coming out of hospital.

This is interesting to me as my mum came out of hospital on Friday and has 3 x a day carer/nurse from nhs. We (my sister and I) are trying to work out what they are doing/offering.

I know one turned up at 7am yesterday to try to get her to have a shower which my mum could not face at that time 😬 and sent her away. But, other than that, she has been a bit vague (mum)

My mum had these a few times after being discharged from hospital. To be honest they didn’t do anything apart from ask her if she was okay. Most of the time either I, or someone else was there at the same time. They stopped coming after two weeks, stating she didn’t need them.

@OldJohn I hope you and your wife are doing well with the new routine. Your updates and advice were so comforting for me when I was going through a tricky time with DMIL earlier this year.

OP

You quit your job?. Any chance whatsoever of getting it back?. How are you going to manage financially?.

Your dad's carer visits are going to be very short in duration at around 15 minutes. There should be a medication book that they need to fill in re medication. You do end up working your day around them and they have a very limited remit in what they can do in the time allocated.

Never be afraid to complain and loudly too if it starts to go wrong (i.e they could well turn up at 4pm expecting him to have his evening meal).

Sorry, but as PP have said this won't be a break for you.

There will be between 2 and 4 very brief visits each day to do 1 or 2 specific tasks each time. You will have very little idea of what time they will arrive, and it will probably be different ones each time so they will need everything re-explaining. It's a useful service for people who don't already have a full time carer, but for those who don't is usually more hindrance than help.

I’d agree with this from my experience of my dad being discharged. There were arriving at 7am to get him up (too early for him) and then came to put him to bed around 6:30pm when he was eating his tea. Luckily at that time we could manage him on our own so we ended up cancelling after the first week. It depends on individual circumstances I guess as to how useful it will be.