{"id":406539,"date":"2010-03-09T06:08:33","date_gmt":"2010-03-09T11:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/careandsupport.direct.gov.uk\/?p=3131"},"modified":"2010-03-09T06:08:33","modified_gmt":"2010-03-09T11:08:33","slug":"integration-%e2%80%93-vivien-zarucki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/406539","title":{"rendered":"Integration \u2013 Vivien Zarucki"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vivian-Zarucki\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Vivien Zarucki\u2019s mother has vascular dementia and needs nursing care 24 hours a day.\u00a0 Her mother spent a long time in hospital while the funding for her on-going care was arranged.\u00a0 Vivien feels that health and social care services should be working together more effectively.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vivien Zarucki, 43, works as a financial advisor in Bournemouth.\u00a0 Until last year, her 76-year-old mother lived a short walk away in her own home.\u00a0 Recently her mother\u2019s health has declined rapidly, and after a long stay in hospital she now lives in a nursing home where she gets the care she needs.<\/p>\n

Vivien first noticed something might be wrong when her mother\u2019s behaviour started to change.\u00a0 She had previously enjoyed reading, cooking and socialising, but she was doing these things less and less.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe used to go to bingo a lot, meet up with her friends. Then she stopped going,\u201d says Vivien.\u00a0 \u201cShe used to love baking these fruitcakes, and that stopped happening as well.\u00a0 And when you thought it through, you could see it\u2019s all the things for which you require short term memory or concentration – following bingo numbers, following a recipe.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was only when her mother suffered a series of small strokes, and her health quickly deteriorated, that she was diagnosed with vascular dementia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Initially Vivien tried to support her mother to stay living in her own home. But psychological and mental health needs meant her mother had to move, initially to a residential home, and then to a psychiatric hospital.<\/p>\n

Following a major epileptic seizure, she was\u00a0admitted to a general hospital, where she stayed for a number a months.\u00a0 It was clear she would not be well enough to return home, and longer term care arrangements needed to be made.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey cared for her very well physically.\u00a0 The nursing staff were fantastic and lovely to Mum.\u00a0 But an acute ward on a general hospital isn\u2019t kitted out.\u00a0 She had no treatment for her mental health, none at all,\u201d says Vivien.<\/p>\n

Vivien believed that her mother was medically fit for discharge after seven weeks, however she remained in hospital for five months. Vivien says that the primary reason for this delay in her discharge was \u201cbureaucratic\u201d; an inaccurate assessment by the PCT, followed by a dispute between the PCT and Social Services over funding. Once these issues had been resolved, Viven\u2019s mother remained in hospital a further one and a half months because there were no spaces in the right nursing homes.<\/p>\n

Vivien explains that the hospital used a single assessment process to work out what care her mother would need when she left hospital.\u00a0 She thinks that in principle this is a very good idea and could help make arranging on-going care easier.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt saves someone having to go here, there and everywhere, all around the houses,\u201d says Vivien.<\/p>\n

In her mother\u2019s case she felt this assessment process did not work as well as it could have done.\u00a0 Her mother\u2019s condition was assessed to see if she had continuing healthcare needs.\u00a0 This would determine whether her nursing care would be funded by the NHS, but it took many weeks to finalise whether her mother qualified for this.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the bottom of all this is money, understandably,” Vivian says.\u00a0“They are there to help and care within budgets, I understand that entirely.\u00a0 But whether it\u2019s social care, whether it\u2019s NHS, it should not delay the end user in receiving the care they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like warfare between the different departments and there is no-one there who can just guide you through.\u00a0 Nothing makes it easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vivien believes the involvement of the discharge coordinator at the hospital helped to finally resolve the situation, although she also feels that the threat of legal action encouraged everyone to work together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end we just started the whole thing afresh, with the discharge coordinator and the multidisciplinary team, everyone in there.\u00a0 It was all done how it should have been done in the first place,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Vivien is thankful for the support she received from the Alzheimer\u2019s Society for helping her make the right decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have been fantastic.\u00a0 It\u2019s putting you in touch with the right people, getting hold of the legislation for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her mother\u2019s case was \u201cborderline\u201d and went to a panel for a final decision, but she appreciated how the discharge coordinator kept her informed about the process and what to expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d much rather be told how it is.\u00a0 You\u2019d rather take it on the chin and have the truth than be misled or misguided, so that you can prepare better for the future,\u201d Vivien says.<\/p>\n

Finally the continuing healthcare funding was awarded and Vivien\u2019s mother is now in a nursing home where she can receive the 24 hour support that she needs for her physical and mental health needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nursing home is a much calmer environment and much better for her,\u201d says Vivien.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vivien Zarucki\u2019s mother has vascular dementia and needs nursing care 24 hours a day.\u00a0 Her mother spent a long time in hospital while the funding for her on-going care was arranged.\u00a0 Vivien feels that health and social care services should be working together more effectively. Vivien Zarucki, 43, works as a financial advisor in Bournemouth.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-406539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}