OH MY GOODNESS! Okay, so AHS confessed that if we don’t book an assessment for Dad ASAP, they will cut off his funding since it takes a week to book an appointment and then another 2 weeks (!) for whatever their so called findings will be to inform a decision. Oh joy. NOT!
So I poured my heart out to an unknown person at AHS and they actually responded. First time ever they’ve responded via email! This person is coming THIS morning (at 8:15) and has already agreed that we need more caregiver hours and that he should go on a waitlist for a care home. I’m not holding my breath of course.
There is NO way they will put him on the waitlist if he presents well. So I’m gonna do something shitty here and wake him just before she arrives. Why can’t they just talk to us, assume that yes his diagnosis of dementia means it’s progressively degenerative and then figure out how to help us? Why continually reassess him? It makes no sense and really upsets him.
I just keep coming back to – what do people do if they have no advocate in their lives? How do families survive? It feels so very wrong.
I chatted with Dad on Wednesday evening and he completely understands that he might need to move into a care home “at some point in the future”. He even suggested he might make friends and be more social as a result. I think he was just trying to help me feel better about it since I was crying during this conversation. We also agreed to call today “feeble friday” in an effort to get more hours and at the very least, to keep our current hours since this is a portion of his caregiver’s income they are threatening. He’s gonna act feeble! Well, if he remembers….more likely that I’ll just be the feeble one.
I also know that there is no place for him. That is to say, a place that actually meets his needs. And I know he is not alone. There is likely no decent or fit place for most people. THAT’S why they decline so rapidly when they are put into the system. NOT because they had to leave their home (the government would rather “they get to stay in their own home for as long as possible”) but because there is NO decent and fit place for MOST people to actually live out their lives. My next challenge looms….
