Emergency care

[fiorentina]

My MIL lives a long way from us, having moved further away 5 years ago to a place where she has no network. He’s an only child and she’s single and increasingly elderly and has had several falls needing hospitalisation for broken limbs. The last one resulted in her finally accepting she needs some help and her getting an emergency bracelet that she can activate if she needs help. Last week she fell again, wasn’t injured but seemed unable to get up. The call centre rang my DH who called the only local contact he had and they helped her up. They’ve said in future they won’t help due to their own personal circumstances which is entirely their prerogative - we absolutely expect nothing from them and appreciate them helping when they did.

Short term whilst we work on future options for her, I’ve been trying to research if there are any care agencies or similar that you can register with who provide literal emergency care eg to help her up if she’s otherwise not injured. It seems a waste of paramedic resources if she isn’t injured to call an ambulance but is that our only option? It’s a 7 hour drive to get to her. Otherwise obviously we’d assist more readily. Thanks for any thoughts or guidance.

Would she accept a service like this?
Careline
sometimes a local council will have a provision too. If there’s no one local that can check on her I think emergency services is the only option unless your area has a falls service- that’s worth looking into but I think it’s pretty rare. 7 hours away is not an emergency response time!

https://www.bardoc.co.uk/how-we-serve-you/reactive-falls-service/
for example, if you can find similar where she is.

Yes the local councils will send the falls teams out. My dad has one and they came out to him and my father in law had to get them out a couple of times. They have amazing specialist lifting equipment much safer than someone lifting people.
Fathers were in Perth and Newcastle so not remote although the Perth one did cover rural Tayside. But worth calling local social services. You can probably check and apply online. I did one for a relative in Edinburgh a few weeks ago, applied online and they had it within a week.

Thank you. That’s a similar service to her emergency bracelet, but they call emergency services not a carer. We were conscious that the ambulance call feels unnnecessary but agree 7 hours isn’t a plausible emergency journey, assuming we could leave immediately too. We have DC who need us.

It’s very tricky. We did raise this when she first moved sadly.

Thank you. We will look into that and see if offered in her area.

I agree to try the local council, it’s usually a small fee but when she presses the bracelet they will come to her and either assist her up or if needed take her to hospital. I know my local council provide this service, hopefully hers does too!

Thank you. I’ve googled similar language and have now found something potentially similar, hopefully this could be a short term support/reassurance for us. Thanks everyone.

The results of a fall can be devastating so it’s a perfectly appropriate call to emergency services.

Ideally she would also ask her GP if there is a Falls Clinic she can be referred to in order to talk more with specialists about ways to reduce falling.

Exactly this.

My Dh grandmother fell in the night in her late 80s. She was on her own kitchen floor. She was conscious. Her dd, not my mil, lived with her and found her in the morning. She couldn't get up. The emergency services were called. Long story short she developed a chest infection, which turned to pneumonia and she sadly died a few days later.

Emergency services being called every time is one of those unintended consequences. A paramedic always went out to MIL - BUT sometimes it took 7 or 8 hours to get there as they were not deemed a priority. This delay meant she had to go to hospital every time due to effects of immobility.

It was however, very helpful, to have the paramedic logs available, in order to negotiate with the council on moving into care.

Yes she is already going to a physio style class to aid her with this. Her doctor is helpful when required. Unfortunately she does tend to drink alcohol fairly heavily, which has been a contributing factor to at least some of the falls.

Thanks for those advising that by calling for help it is helping towards the case for care, that’s a very good point. We were trying not to be a drain on resources but maybe overthinking this and it’s best if required.