Care Opinion

Dementia and Leeds mental health/social services

Posted By trebarwith

"Dementia and Leeds mental health/social services"

About: Leeds / Leeds Social Services Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust / Older people's mental health

(as a relative),

Recently diagnosed dementia of parent at the community mental health service, Leeds, after assessment by doctor.

No follow up appt made, no referral to memory clinic or support service, or advice offered to family.

Not told what stage of dementia.

As leaving consultation doctor decides to give drug.

Not received prescription until 3 months later.

Social worker decides re enablement route, this fails not enough support.

Mental health nurse required to follow up at intervals, no contact made with family, MHN follows up over phone, ( by now parent removed from own home in residential care )and increases dosage without seeing parent or family, relies on care workers assessment.

3 months on, 'best interests' put into residential care.

How does this happen?

Family not listened to, not asked, parent's own wishes to live in own home dismissed.

Social worker assessed parent as no capability.

Decisions removed from family.

Have no faith in system ruled by finances and a bullying culture.

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Responses

Response from Leeds and York NHS Partnership NHS Foundation Trust 10 years ago
Leeds and York NHS Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 24/01/2014 at 12:46
Published on Care Opinion at 13:16

Dear Trebarwith,

I'm extremely sorry to hear that your experience of our Mental Health Service was so disappointing. We aim to be responsive and supportive both to people accessing services and their families, and we have clearly fallen short in your eyes.

From your posting it's clear that you and your family have been in contact with various professionals from within health and social care services, which is what should happen when a person is having memory problems.

I would also have expected the memory service's clearly defined process to have been followed. This is tailored to meet people's individual needs and includes assessment/treatment (when appropriate), support, advice and relevant follow-up as required.

This however does not seem to have been implemented in your parent's case, and therefore I completely understand why you and your family feel as though you were not listened to or involved in your parent's care.

We are trying to provide a service that puts the person at the centre of their care and that any interventions are given/provided in a timely manner. This does not seem to have happened with you and your parent and for that I can only apologise.

I really hope that you will feel able to help us to review the care we provided so that we can better help your parent and ensure that others do not have the same experience.

Would you be willing to meet with me so that I can better understand the details of your parent's care and your experience? If so, could I ask that you contact our Patient Advice & Liaison Service (PALS) on 0800 0525790 or pals.lypft@nhs.net and they will make the necessary arrangements.

Should you not feel able to meet up personally I can assure you that I will be bringing your posting to the attention of my staff for all of them to be aware.

Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences here, and I hope we can work together to look back over what happened, and look forward to better supporting you in the future.

Yours sincerely,

Alison Gordon

Clinical Service Manager

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