Please read the following anonymous case study to illustrate how I can assist private clients.
(For ease of reading, I have named the client Billy and changed some facts to make it unidentifiable).
• Billy previously lived at home with his wife Mary in an owner-occupied house. Both Billy and Mary had enjoyed successful careers and did not have any children. They enjoyed being together and had no close family or friends. They were both self-funding therefore not eligible for social services financial support to pay for social care services.
• Mary began to mentally decline and was diagnosed with dementia. Mary was having monitoring visits from a Community Nurse and a local authority social worker put a care package in place consisting of four 30-minute calls a day.
• Mary was becoming more challenging in the home and began to argue with Billy then abscond from the home unaccompanied, placing herself at risk of abuse and neglect as a vulnerable adult in the community.
• The local authority social worker placed Mary in a care home after an incident where she had wandered into the community, for her own safety.
• Billy approached a local solicitor for some advice as he wanted to his wife to be returned home to live with him and did not know how to go about this. Fortunately, the solicitor was aware I provided advice and support as an Independent Social Worker and suggested Billy give me a call which he did.
• I was able to spend time to listen to Billy and fully understand his concerns and wishes. With his consent I visited Mary with him at the care home to gain an understanding of her care needs and how these were being met.
• I liaised with health and social care staff on Billy’s behalf to support him to understand his wife’s needs and how these could best be met. I supported Billy to attend a best interests meeting with health and social care staff to discuss his wife’s care needs and how these could be best met in the longer term. This meeting was very difficult for Billy because he was informed that his wife now needed permanent 24-hour residential care. I was able to provide emotional support to Billy before, during and after this best interests meeting.
• I recognised that Mary was not claiming attendance allowance and applied for this on her behalf. Mary successfully received over £1000 in back pay and now receives the higher rate of attendance allowance (£101.75 per week in 2023).
• I advised Billy about the benefits of telecare as he now lived alone and how this would enable him to summon support should he have a fall or require any assistance.
• I advised Billy about the benefits of having a lasting power of attorney in place for himself and about a deputyship application so he could formally manage his wife’s property and finances in her best interests going forward.
• I provided Billy with much needed emotional support to help him come to terms with the fact his wife needed to permanently reside in a care home setting to meet her needs.
• It has been a pleasure to work with Billy and Mary and support them to put things in place for their future.
Do you have a private client in need of independent social work advice and support? Please contact me for an informal discussion to explore how I may be able to assist.