Desperately seeking help! (Apologies for the long post)
My father-in-law was diagnosed 3 years ago with frontal temporal dimentia. He was 64 at the time, and had symptoms for 10 years previously, but was managing to “maintain independence of sorts”, and was not being diagnosed as he was getting 94 out of 100 with the cognitive test/dementia assessments. He went from a successful business owner, quite wealthy, to bankrupt, divorced and regularly needing money to pay for rent so he didn’t get kicked out of his rental. He was a JP for many years, but again the last 3 years, has had assault charges and many altercations resulting in the police being called.
We live in WA and he is in Qld. On holiday a couple of monthes ago, we got a call from his local police stating there was a warrant of possession on him and at 2pm a couple of days later he was being evicted. He would not answer the phone until that morning, and when we arrived at his place, he had not packed anything and said he had nowhere to go and was going to drive his car into oncoming traffic.
We could find no help, and eventually took him to ED, where a dr admitted him and social workers, geriatric drs etc assessed him over 3 weeks, ACAT assessment done, resulting in him being deemed low care, but requiring 24/7 residential care, as he does not have the capacity to maintain independent daily living.
A residential facility was found, they stated the first 2 weeks would be funded as “respite” to ensure it’s a good fit, and then he would have permanent placement.
Onboarding occurred when we arrived home to WA-they did not speak to my husband (who is power of attorney) no meeting was held to capture critical information on my fil.
He left the centre after the 1st night and did not return for 48 hrs-no call to tell us he was missing until he returned and they rang to inform us he had broken the “respite contract” by staying away over night. When I asked about on boarding , they told me they had met with his girlfriend-to which I replied they had only met 8 weeks ago.
They have now deemed him unsuitable for the residential place, and aged care descions have now informed us today they’ve exhausted all facilities-no one will take him as he is too low care and independent(despite the acat/psychiatrist/social worker reports and assessments) and they cant doing anything else.
He will be homeless in 21 days..is there anyone we can contact to assist?
We are terrified of what will happen and it appears there is no place for him to go?
Aged care-desperately seeking help
Aged care-desperately seeking help
Posted in:
Health & Wellbeing
4 Replies
I would find and aged care advocate. Someone who knows the system.
He’s probably going to need to redo the ACAT assessment as it sounds like he didn’t score high enough on the latest one for the dementia ward, which attracts higher funding levels (which is locked down, patients can’t just leave).
I’d also look at getting legal advice on what can be achieved with the power of attorney.
Also contact your father in laws local members of parliament (state and federal) email is usually very effective, and ask them for help.
You need to call your ACAT team and be referred to PGN (physogeriatrican) team. Because he’s geriatric it’s elder abuse by the RACF.
Ask for his geriatrician to fax through to RACF that he needs to be kept in a locked ward.
And to ensure his safety - pick him up and take him back to ED! They may have a dementia specific ward at the hospital so they can observe him and work out best plan
This lady was a god-send for us on placing my dad. Different needs, but a specialist in navigating aged care assistance. Qld based.
https://www.agedcareassistance.com.au/
julia@agedcareassistance.com.au