Mr T’s wife had been diagnosed with Vascular Dementia 3 years before coming to us. Mr T had managed to care for his wife at home with the support of care staff who came in 4 times a day. Mr and Mrs T’s only child lived in the USA having emigrated for business purposes.
Mrs T had begun to deteriorate and her memory was increasingly failing her. On several occasions she had managed to open the front door during the night and wander off. She had been returned home by the police on these occasions.
Mr T began to suffer ill health himself and developed a heart condition. Jointly with his GP, Mr T had come to the decision that his wife required 24hr care. This was an extremely difficult and emotional decision and Mr T felt he required professional support to ensure he found the most appropriate care placement for his wife, and he came to us for assistance.
We worked with Mr T to establish what was important to him and his wife in terms of her future care and the kind of placement they would be happy with. A lot of time was spent with Mr T helping him to come to terms with such an emotionally draining decision.
We identified some placements which were appropriate and escorted Mr T to visit each home whilst carers were with his wife at home. Once Mr T chose a care home that he liked and felt comfortable with, we arranged for his wife to go into the care home initially for a short period of respite. This enabled Mr T to see how his wife settled and to make it easier for him to come to terms with the situation. After the period of respite Mrs T went home for just a few days before she became a full time resident of the care home.
We have provided some ongoing support in that Mr T now has a dedicated member of our team whom he can call if he has any general questions or if he just needs a little reassurance.
