My father had a stroke in May. He was moved from Wishaw to Udston from where he was ultimately discharged in August. He was discharged because occupational therapy said he was becoming "too dependent" . The only community OT support he received was a shower chair. There has been no community OT rehabilitation.
The physios and speech and language are no longer supporting him because they say he is non-compliant when in truth he has zero energy which, apparently, is a common stroke symptom and which the community teams should have factored in.
This is someone who is tee-total, who hasn't smoked for fifty years and who up until Covid was swimming five days a week. I am disgusted by the utterly unprofessional way Udston have just washed their hands of him and settled for managed decline instead of diligently supporting his recovery in an appropriate way. As a minimum, given Covid, there should have been multiple group sessions using video contact so that there was constant S and L input from which many people could benefit. One therapist visiting once a fortnight is totally inadequate. They asked me to get him an i-pad which I did but he needs support to use it.
Community physio should have known how to work with his energy levels and set small achievable goals which they supported him to achieve
I urgently need dietitian input because not only is he fatigued but pre-diabetic and very run down. The stroke nurse is doing the best they can while the dietitians are tying themselves in knots to get out of helping.
Why is it even possible to discharge someone on the basis of them "becoming too dependent" without a plan being put in place to help them get back to appropriate levels of independence?
How do I get the proper support he needs to get his recovery back on track? Even if I wasn't doing eighteen hour days between caring for him and working from home, (with only the barest community personal care support) this is not in my skill set and I'm fairly well educated. Heaven help some of the families of patients if their relatives are being discharged by Udston in the way my father was.
"Inadequate rehabilitation"
About: Lanarkshire Community Services / Adult Speech and Language Therapy Lanarkshire Community Services Adult Speech and Language Therapy Lanarkshire Community Services / Occupational Therapy Lanarkshire Community Services Occupational Therapy Lanarkshire Community Services / Physiotherapy Lanarkshire Community Services Physiotherapy Udston Hospital Udston Hospital Hamilton ML3 9LA University Hospital Wishaw / Stroke Unit (Ward 11) University Hospital Wishaw Stroke Unit (Ward 11) ML2 0DP
Posted by AnK20 (as ),
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