Mum’s Being Discharged From Hospital and Can’t Go Home — What Now?
A loved one being discharged from hospital but can't safely…
Finding a complex needs care home can feel impossible after other providers have said no. If you’ve rung round care homes for your mum or dad and kept hearing “sorry, we can’t meet their needs,” it’s a horrible place to be. You’re already worried sick, you’re trying to do right by them, and every no feels like a door shutting. Maybe it’s dementia that’s got harder to manage. Maybe there’s more than one condition to deal with. Maybe they’ve been turned away after a hospital stay.
Take it from us: a no from one home doesn’t mean there’s nowhere. It usually just means you’ve not yet found the home that’s set up to say yes.
It’s rarely about your mum or dad as a person. Homes say no when they don’t have the right setup or the right experience for what someone needs. A home might not have enough staff on at night. Its team might not be trained for dementia where behaviour can get distressing. It might not take people who need two carers to move safely, or who have a few conditions going on at once.
So when a home says no, what they’re really saying is “we’re not the right fit.” That’s honest, and it’s better than taking someone on and not coping. But it leaves you ringing the next number on the list, and the next, feeling more and more deflated.
This is the bit we most want you to hear. Being turned away can make you feel like your loved one is “too much,” or a problem. They’re not. They’re a person who needs the right care, from a team who’ve done it before and won’t be fazed.
The homes that say no aren’t judging them. They just know their limits. The trick is finding a home whose limits are wider, because they’ve built the team and the experience to handle the harder stuff.
“Complex needs” is one of those phrases that gets used a lot without much explained. In plain terms, it usually means one or more of these:
None of it is beyond the right home. It just needs a team who know what they’re doing and who treat the person, not the label.
Where a lot of homes start with what they can’t do, we start with “let’s have a look and see what we can do.” We’ve spent years looking after people living with dementia and complex needs, including plenty of folk that other homes felt they couldn’t take.
What makes the difference here is the team. They’ve been with us a long time, they know every resident by name, and they know how each person likes their tea and what settles them on a hard day. We’ve a manager who’s hands-on and who’ll happily talk you through exactly how we’d look after your mum or dad. And we take all the main ways of paying, including council funding, council funding with a top-up, and NHS funding, so money worries needn’t be another closed door.
If you’ve had a no, don’t take it as the final word. Give us a ring and tell us honestly what’s going on with your mum or dad, the bits that worry you and the bits other homes have struggled with. We’ll give you a straight answer about whether we can help, and we’ll do it quickly, because we know you haven’t got time to spare.
Had a no from somewhere else? Give Laurel Bank a ring on 0161 368 4719 and tell us about your mum or dad. Where others say no, we start with “let’s see how we can help.”
It’s a care home set up to look after people whose needs go beyond standard residential care, such as advanced dementia, behaviour that can be hard to manage, or more than one condition at once. The difference is in the team’s training and experience, not the building. At Laurel Bank we’re used to caring for people with complex needs, including those other homes have turned away.
Usually because they don’t have the right setup or experience for that person’s needs, like enough staff at night, dementia training, or the ability to support someone who needs two carers. It’s about the home’s limits, not about your loved one. A different home with wider experience may happily say yes.
Yes, the right one can. Behaviour that challenges, like agitation, distress or walking with purpose, is something an experienced dementia team handles calmly and kindly every day. The key is finding a home that’s done it before and won’t be fazed. We’d talk you through exactly how we’d support your loved one.
Yes. Lots of the people we look after have dementia alongside something else, such as Parkinson’s, a stroke, or a mental health condition. One capable home is far kinder than moving someone between places, so we’re set up to care for the whole person in one home.
Don’t treat it as the final answer. Ring a home that’s experienced with complex needs, explain honestly what’s going on, including the parts other homes struggled with, and ask for a straight answer. At Laurel Bank you can call us on 0161 368 4719 and we’ll tell you quickly whether we can help.
Yes. We accept self-funding, council (local authority) funding, council funding with a top-up, and NHS Continuing Healthcare. If you’re not sure which applies to your mum or dad, we’ll talk it through with you plainly.
