Injury to elderly mum in care home

[MrsFunnyFanny]

I’m just wondering what (if any) obligation a care home has to inform next of kin when a resident has a fall resulting in minor injury. My mum has already had one serious fall in their care, resulting in a broken nose and terrible facial bruising. I’ve just found out today from my son that she’s had another fall, and has quite a large green and yellow bruise on her forehead, above her eye. She has dementia and poor memory following a stroke, so couldn’t remember exactly what had happened, but knew that she’d tried to stand up and fell. She thinks she banged her head on the chest of drawers in her room.
I’m her next of kin, and have LPA for both property & finance, and for health & welfare, yet the care home made no attempt to contact me and let me know she’d been hurt.
Are they supposed to? There have already been concerns raised by the social worker around safeguarding issues, so I wonder if they have tried to hush this incident up to avoid further escalation.
i’d appreciate any advice or info.
Thanks.

Yes they are supposed to tell you about any such injuries.

Yea they should. I’d notify her social worker or your local safeguarding adults team

I’m not sure about the obligation but my mums home phoned me whenever she had a fall (twice in the 18 months she was there), the intervention they put in place to prevent falls and any other incidents. No diagnosis of dementia but my mum could never explain what had happened, probably didn’t remember. I did dread them ringing me but also appreciated it, they genuinely seemed to care (not that my mum thought so). They very much seemed to want to work with me and support us all. I was next of kin but power of attorney for finance but not health.

In your position, I’d be wondering the same as you.

YES THEY ARE!!! Don't hush it up get safeguarding involved immediately. Why on earth would you keep it quiet?

My friends care home would call me every time he had a fall. Even if he was uninjured

My father had 2 falls in hospital. Has had 1 in the care home. And many when he was with us! All "called" non injurous but one hospital fall he hit his head and needed treatment to an eye cut. The others he didnt even suffer bruising.

The hospital and the care home called us immediately on each occasion. And they explained their plan of action (Dad was given a head scan on one hospital fall and stiches/glue and he was given regular wellbeing checks every 2 hours for 24 hours in the care home).

So, yes, I would definitely have expected calls for your Mum. I am POA for my father - not sure if it makes any difference.

In fact, Dads care home has a care record system that Im privy too, so I would have seen the reports anyway, even if they hadnt.

She needs medical attention (forehead bruise is classed as potential head injury) they should have called medics, you and notified SW.
can you phone them or even go there, find out if she’s been seen by NHS and if any of the above have been done.
falls happen, but they need to be on the risk mitigation.
also does she have a falls alarm and you should ask to be talked through her falls risk assessment.

FIL's care home always called if he had a fall..

Part of the care plan is around contact with relatives. We have agreed with the care home that if mum falls through the night they will let us know the next day but not at the time. And if they need to call the doctor generally they won't phone until the doctor has been. But if they think we should attend quickly as happened a few weeks ago when she had an episode that the on site nurse thought might be end of life they will phone us as they phone emergency services. These conversations are important to the relationship with the home. I suggest you make an appointment with the manager to discuss all this type of contact.

This thread is an eye opener!
I also have concerns about not being informed of falls and finding out through conversations with my parent at a later date. The injuries are debilitating and leading to more falls.

PIL’s care home called us every time either had a fall. And I think there was paperwork too.

My DM (with dementia) was a ‘wanderer’ and had more than one fall in her care home - I never blamed them since they couldn’t possibly prevent all falls. However they did always inform me, adding on one occasion that I’d get a shock when I saw her, and I did. Her face was black and blue - you’d think she’d gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson. However she did not seem to be in any pain, and of course had no recollection of the fall.

Of course they should inform you, OP, and I’d insist on it in future. I can only think that some relatives accuse them of negligence if anyone is injured in a fall, but how they are to prevent them all, in people who are still mobile - other than by tying them to a chair! - I do not know.

My DM had a Zimmer frame, but could never remember to use it.

Mum’s care home certainly tell us whenever she falls. They always sound nervous when they call so I guess it’s not an easy call to make but I hope they know that we just regard it as one of the things that happens.

It doesn't sound like there is any evidence of abuse or neglect - the OP not being informed of a fall is very poor communication on behalf of the care home but it's not a safeguarding issue.

The care home don't even have to inform the local authority of falls unless the fall has occurred as a result of abuse or neglect - they do have to inform the CQC and RIDDOR it with HSE if an injury has occurred though.

I was always informed of falls. My mother had several falls in the care home, I got a phone call the same day to let me know.