jwhiteh2 said on 28 April 2010
The example is stated above
"Alan has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and it has reached an advanced stage. He lives at home with his son and needs assistance with all personal care tasks such as washing and eating. He has both bowel and urinary incontinence, and needs constant supervision to ensure his safety."
NO HE WOULDN'T! - Based upon the way most PCT's interpret the wording of the 12 domains, Alan's condition would not be classed as severe, complex or unpredictable, and he would likely be denied funding. His care needs would be classed as a 'social need', even if he were in a care home or nursing home.
My grandmother has more complex and unpredictable care needs than Alan (above) including severe dementia, bowel and urinary incontinence, no mobility and is unable to reliably communicate - and she has been denied funding, on the basis that her self-neglect, violence and agresssion, and requirement for 24-hour supervision, although 'unpredictable', are not severe enough to warrant funding. The Trust claim that her behaviour, although unpredictable, IS predictable, because it is always unpredictable. (I know it makes no sense)
This is subject to an appeal, and I am quickly discovering that the representatives of the PCT (in this case Walsall) are highly unprofessional, and do not understand even basic words used in the national guidance. My advice to anyone undertaking an asessment is to take a dictionary to explain to these 'professional' assessors the meaning of words like 'reliably', 'weight bearing', 'unable' and 'consistently'. I speak from experience when I say that PCT's will bend the interpretation of facts and, in some cases, even the meaning of plain English, to deny people access to NHS Continuing Care Funding.
