Expert: Box Ticked...But You've Got It Wrong

Dad was assessed, by the experts, as needing high care -  what do you do when you discover that assessment is wrong?

I can’t remember what the exact wording was in the report, but the result was we were sent to look at available facilities that offered care for Dad’s assessed level of need.

We were horrified. 

These places were for people in walkers and wheel chairs, those who couldn’t feed or toilet themselves.  Those who spent their days on heavy medication so they’re easier for staff to handle. 

Dad may have a few memory issues, and he may occasionally get angry and not remember it 5 minutes later – I found out down the track that his aggressive outbursts were largely why he was assessed as high needs –  but he was nowhere near needing lock down 24/7. 

He still loved to go outside and potter or sit.  He still fed, clothed and toileted himself. 

We knew that he would hate being locked in - if the experts were looking for a reason to make him angry, that would do it!  We knew he would know if he was walking round in circles in a tiny fenced in excuse for a garden, with no view of an ocean, and no vege patch, and no verandah to enjoy the end of day sunshine.

Quite frankly, we knew the recommended facilities would drive him crazy.  We also knew the only way they would ‘handle’ him was with heavy medication – because that’s what you do with violent types (my bias).  We knew they'd' got the assessment wrong.

It’s funny, but I always got the feeling that Dad got angry because he was frustrated.  And he was frustrated when he couldn’t understand what was going on around him or when he couldn’t communicate two things. One, what he wanted to say about what was going on around him and Two, what he wanted to say about what was happening inside of him. In both cases, he’d get so agitated, he just couldn’t get the words to come out – so he got mad and lashed out.   

It astounds me that the ‘experts’ (or rather one part time, not available till after my holidays expert) in Northland not only could not be, but were not,  interested in acknowledging this.  It seemed to me they just wanted to lock Mr Angry Dad away and dose him up because the boxes they had ticked on their Alzheimers symptoms list said so.

There was no doubt in our minds the experts in The Machine had ticked the wrong boxes. In short they had got their assessment wrong, so we set about changing it and looking for something more appropriate to what we knew his needs were.