It is crucial to get, home adaptations in place as soon as possible, rather than, leaving it for months and months in order for the person that you're caring for to be. Able to get out and about, to socialise. So, from my experience, this happens with my, my dad, who I look after very recently in that, he went into hospital just for one night.

But when he came home, then we had we didn't have an Occupational Therapist. We had a physio come out, but, he provided lots of aids , immediately for him. That was, wonderful that he was able to get out and about, and he was reassured that he could get up and down the stairs. So I found that input really helpful.

But as as far as the adaptations are concerned, it just makes life really, really difficult if they're not in place in a quick turnover of time. My husband's struggles with stairs and, we had a, stair rail put in when he came out of hospital many, many years ago. But then following an accident where he, reduced mobility further by, breaking a hip, then suddenly turned that he got to the top of the stairs and realised he needed another grab rail.

He didn't have one. It was just like, what am I going to do? It was always falling down the stairs. Yeah. So, so, when when I approached, social services for, for, some assistance with this, they said, oh, there's at least an eight week wait. You've got to fill in the form. And then you've got to wait.

And, so we just employed, a local builder to come and fit one where we thought it should go. So we had no, Occupational Therapy or physio support that time. So, but yes, otherwise he would feel really unsafe on the stairs.

Where does Occupational Therapy fit in? Where in the chain of communication do they fit in? And I and I think the thing about the, the, the briefing was that the criticism was that so, Occupational Therapy and social services react rather than plan in advance the the necessary handling equipment, adaptation. So there were six weeks when my mother was in hospital when they could have thought about that, they could have discussed it with us.

They could have referred it on. So my question then is, and I think one of the conclusions of one of the reports was that, That raising a, raising awareness of the public, of, of the availability of adaptations is simply not there. The awareness is not there. The understanding is not where and and the referral is not what?
Oh, isn't. I don't think people are aware of the referral precedent. So there's too much emphasis on reacting. And even when you've got somebody in hospital for six weeks, rather than just going to be a day, there's an opportunity there to actually done as a risk assessment. So the only risk assessment was done, which in terms of deciding whether my mum mother could be safely returned home.

So it wasn't really a mobility issue was more and safety was about that. Could she go into they did a mock up of a kitchen and basically can you make yourself a cup of tea and can you climb some stairs? And basically that's the that's the risk assessment test.

I think the other thing is safety, not just mobility, is the issue around if she's living. I mean, she wasn't living her own because I was a full time carer, but if I if I went off sick or my sister went off sick because she did, in the end, because she had, she was diagnosed with lung cancer, that how does somebody in their late 80s operate a gas oven or hot water for me and, and the whole issues around safety burns and scalding and and also, she thought it was very cold at night, so she wanted the electric fires on all night.

So if I switched it off she might well want to switch it on. You know. So all the question about if you got somebody. So I'm not obviously I'm not going to be my mother's in her bed but I'm in a separate room. I don't know what she's up to, and I don't know whether it's safe to leave her with the fire on or, with electric sockets and things at night.

So I think that that was left out. I mean, it wasn't cold. The house isn't cold, but somebody with dementia. And my mother, she constantly even in the summer, she felt cold. I just think those things are not anticipated unless you do a full assessment and a full risk assessment. And you talk to the carer, you wouldn't find that out.

So the obvious things like carpets are loose. My mother was wearing slippers that weren’t properly fitted and furniture is a hazard as well. I mean, I know that children, I've got grandchildren and all the edges of furniture have got things on it to prevent you from striking corners of, of, furniture. And I think that sort of thing is the sort of thing that is cheap to find, cheap, too cheap to buy, and very helpful. Absolutely. Bobby, do you have any more thoughts?

Yes, I think also, the point that I made before about, there might be conflicting, adaptation needs in one household. For instance. My dad lives with us, and, my husband's disabled, and, a long time ago, somebody suggested that, my husband could have a stairlift, and that would make his life easier.

But in order to do that, we would need to take down the second stair rail that we've got. So we've got the stair rail on either side. And that would mean, my dad would have to use the, the Stairlift as well. So, but a, a different size is short and small. My husband's quite tall and big so.

The size of the stair lift would obviously have to be for my husband, and that would take up half the stairs as well, because he's got long legs. And, so that would mean I'd find it difficult negotiating past the stair lift. So we haven't bothered. My husband goes down the stairs backwards, and my dad's, has.

Well, when he came out of hospital last, he was taught to go up one step at a time rather than trying to race up stairs and get out of breath. So, we're trying to do it without the adaptations, but there's a conflict, and, but there's no easy resolution to that kind of need also bathing as well.

My, my dad's well, my dad doesn't like washing anyway, so he was this like a constant battle with water. But really he would need a wet room and, well, actually, my husband would too, but we still need a bath for other reasons. Other people who visit the household would need a bath. And, so it's all complicated, and it's always a compromise to get, something that suits everybody, or doesn't suit anybody in our case.

Yeah. Can I ask you about did you have any assessment done? Did you have. Occupational Therapist come to has to do an assessment. I did we did for the stair lifts. She she said she said yeah, you really should have a stair lift. But yeah. But who would have paid for that?

Us. We would be totally self funding. Exactly. Yes. Because you have a certain level of income is. Yes. Yeah. It strikes me that I'm not quite sure what the role of the Occupational Therapist person is because you presumably, did you contact them and say or did they contact you? I'm just wondering who initiated that. I initiated it, we had to make that a couple of months before they came out and said that, yes, you could do with a stair lift and, then, put us in.

Well, no, actually I, I knew that's not aa stair lift company and they came out and gave us a quote. And then we thought, yeah, it's just not it's a lot of money to spend for. Yeah, but it doesn't suit anybody. So it's something not right now. So yeah it's all self self-funding on that.

Yeah I think the other thing if you may is, is actually, given the limitation to home adaptations A) the cost B) is it proper, a proper risk assessment done versus supported housing. Because one of the things that was suggested, my mother is actually to go into supportive housing, now if that was available, you would need to do all these expensive adaptations, particularly given the fact that some of the adaptation doesn't suit other members of the family, it would cause problems.

So I think that should be considered. Summarise the key things for me, and maybe Bobby can say yeah I agree I or say something different. I think one is that we both have is that we've had parents who've got been going into hospital and in my case, in hospital for at least six weeks. Note that could have been an opportunity to anticipate what needs she had going back at home.

And that doesn't seem to be what I know. So who's, how did you get referred to Occupational Therapy and what is the system and how can you, you get much more awareness and appreciation of what that adaptation services. Yeah, I do agree with that. I'd also say that that needs to be done quickly.

So how can we speed it up as well as yeah, yeah. Because as the research says, it's much better to get it done. If you have a referral and you have to wait 8 to 12 weeks, then I know they triaged them, but yeah, yeah. Life changing. So you need it done quickly.