I have had my first assessment carried out by NACP and was asked who was doing things about the home and looking after my wife’s needs. I told the assessor that I was doing everything to which she replied her assessment was that we were coping and therefore no budget would be allocated. When I said that I had been told that because it was Alzheimer’s and we all know where the journey was taking us that the budget would be allocated so that when the time comes help is only a call away. I was told that I had been mis informed and assessments would be needed when anything changed and budget approval on each case could take up to a year. So what is the point of SDS.??
Hi @teila4049, sorry to hear that your initial attempts to access support have been frustrating.
One thing to be clear about is whether you are needing to access support for your wife, for yourself (as her carer), or both. There are different eligibility criteria for accessing support for an individual’s personal care needs and support for an unpaid carer (your LA should be able to provide you with these). See here:
Can I get social care support? - The SDS HandbookThe SDS Handbook
Eligibility for carers to access support for themselves - The SDS HandbookThe SDS Handbook
Often the assessment for personal care and carer support will be done jointly, but unfortunately it is often the case that if you don’t ask, you don’t get. As a unpaid carer, you are entitled to ask for an Adult Carer Support Plan (ACSP) to identify what support you need to help you in your caring role. For example, you may need some respite from your caring role to give you a bit of time to look after your own needs, but if you do not know to ask for this (and the person carrying out the assessment does not explore this sufficiently), the outcome will not be a true reflection of the support that you need.
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Welcome to the community.
Dementia is not of itself, a need. Maybe the dementia is mild - maybe you are coping anyway - only you know.
I see this whole process as a long term build up of honesty and trust: if what you need is two hours support per week to go bowling, and two hours to go for a swim, then thats a good start.
You see, this is about your needs too: you are entitled to a break, but you need to be very explicit about it.
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The process of Alzheimer’s is written in tablets of stone. We and the authorities know the route of the journey. Things can drastically change for care over night and yet those in charge want to assess as it happens and in their own words approval after another assessment can take up to a year for approval. I personally am unaware of any cares facility that will provide the care needed on the basis that it might be approved.
My argument is we know the journey we know what will eventually be needed so why is it not possible for approval of a budget that can be called upon as and when needed. i.E put the care in place prior to the assessment. If they are worried that it would be abused for financial gain it can be recovered.
What a very sensible and enlightened idea.
Which is why it will never be supported by social work, who live in cloud cuckoo land!
But the pathways can actually be very different - my father died at 99 years of age, and at home, his dementia was mild and often quite amusing - he was happy as larry- and as a family we supported him and paid for a live-in care worker. It worked very well.