Vera and Leonard
Leonard (known as King to his friends) has difficulties with his memory due to Vascular Dementia and needs to be reassured and supported with his personal care to keep him safe, clean and well-dressed to the fashion he is accustom to. King also had diabetes which needs carefully monitoring along with his other medication.
Before being referred to Ideal for All, Vera (King’s wife) had been doing all of his care herself, which was proving to be very difficult and very tiring for her, especially as the more progression there was with King’s illness, the more his body clock was becoming out of synchronisation to the real time and making his sleep pattern irregular.
Now King has been allocated a direct payment from the local authority, Vera can employ personal assistants to support her with his needs and give her some much needed “Own Time”. Initially the Direct Payment was set up for King to go to a Day Centre and also have a Personal Assistant, but due to his dementia, his behaviour became increasingly challenging and the day centre was no longer an appropriate place for him to attend. After speaking with Vera and the Social Worker, it was agreed that the days that King was no longer using by attending the day centre could be broken down as a cost to enable more hours to be used for wages for the Personal Assistant which would give Vera more much needed support. This worked well for a while, but King needed to go into respite for a while as Vera was becoming increasingly unwell due to the amount of attention and time she was having to give to King. This also included a massive amount of day to day washing and cleaning of soiled bedding and clothes due to King’s diabetes and dementia progressing.
Vera Said “It is better now that Len was in a care home, but he is getting more and more distressed by being there and away from his home.” “I can’t relax knowing that he is there all upset, so I think I need to try and get him home again but I will need more support”.
After speaking with the Social Worker and Ideal for All, a new amount of care hours have been allocated for King and this now enables Vera to employ 2 PAs. Vera is using the PA that she had initially when the Direct Payments started, but with increased hours and also another PA to do some additional hours that she has now been allocated for King’s support.
Having the choice of employing someone has given Vera much more freedom and this has also made looking after King, although still challenging, easier and lets her know that he is getting the best care possible. Having PAs that King knows well and he trusts has meant that he is able to stay in his own home, where he is much more relaxed and comfortable due to the familiar surroundings.
Vera said “I personally find it better knowing that Len is safe in his own home, even though I still have to keep everything locked to stop him leaving, I know he is safe and where he wants to be”.