Moving care homes

This page covers:
• Reasons why people may move to another care home
• Care home costs and how long they can be afforded
• Balancing the benefits and risks of a move

Several people said they were told that once someone is living in residential care, it is risky for them to move to a new care home. We spoke to people who tried to choose a care home that would serve them until the end of life. However, some people, for a variety of reasons, found they had to move to a new care home. Here we share the experiences of those who moved, the decisions they made and how they physically moved between care homes.

Hannah’s mum was living in a care home near to her. When Hannah relocated, the family decided it would be best to find a care home in her new location. St John’s Ambulance helped with the move and Hannah and her sister and brother feel their mum is getting much better care now.

Leigh said there were ‘many, many conversations’ in the family and with her foster son’s therapist and social worker about what would be involved in taking hormone blockers.

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When he attended the [Gender Identity Development Service] he went monthly for assessment with his therapist who has remained his therapist throughout. So he has had that constant and he’s managed to build up a really good relationship with his therapist at the [Gender Identity Development Service]. And finally, maybe a year or so ago, started opening up about other stuff. So, in that way, he’s been supported with them. That’s been quite good. In referral in regards to the hormone blockers, with his therapist, we, as a family with his social worker had many, many, many conversations about hormone blockers. The process. What it involves. What it could lead to. Even the fact, you know, having an injection monthly is a major thing for a 11 year old to start. I think maybe three or four months after we started the conversation he was referred to the endocrinology at the [hospital] in [name of city]. That was maybe six to eight weeks. From being referred to getting the appointment. We saw one of the lead clinicians at the [hospital]. Had blood tests done. Had bone density scans done. It all seemed to go pretty smoothly. Once wed got to the [hospital] it was like not much questions, not many questions. Not much assessing. Not much, not much anything really. It was just a case of, right, youve been referred for blockers, that’s what you’re here for. Here you go. You know, so that was kinda, I didnt expect that. I expected that to be a bit more, this is our realm, let’s delve a little deeper and let’s take it a little bit slower. It wasnt.

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Not all care homes have the facilities to care for people who need nursing care or have advanced dementia. Some people told us that a move to a new care home was forced by increased care needs.

Housework and gardening weren’t recognised as physical activities when James first completed a questionnaire about his lifestyle.

Age at interview 76

Gender Male

Age at diagnosis 66

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Oh yes, everything, lifestyle because when I did the lifestyle study. In fact, tell you something humorous; What activities, you know, how active are you? I said, Well I have to be, I’m responsible for a four-bedroom detached house and garden which I have to cook and clean and wash and shop. I’ve got a large allotment which one of my wife’s allergies, she, she builds up oxalates in her body, so we have to know if we can where the vegetables come from. So, I became a keen vegetable gardener and have actually won five Banksian medals, which is the RHS Gold award and you can only take part every three years, so fifteen years. And I said, I maintain a large allotment. I also cycle around the village. I’ve got an old bicycle because you have to go the bank, the post office, the doctor’s, library, the shops and it’s much easier to get on your bike than mucking about with a ca. Oh yes, it is a lot to d. Oh, we can’t include housework. We don’t consider that to be an activit. I thought, There is a bloody proforma questionnaire written by a man. And funnily enough it is now considered an activity.

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Sometimes, when a care home had to be found in a hurry, people said they had not had time to look at all the options.

Lucy knows she has been in a study since she was a baby but doesn’t know the name or the aim of it.

Age at interview 30

Gender Female

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So, this is a little bit of a tricky one because I have no idea what the name of the study that I’ve been part of what the name of it is. I’ve been in it for over 30 years, as far as I’m aware I’m still enrolled in it. It was one that I was enrolled into when I was a newborn by my mum, and she has no idea what the name of the study is, she’s got no paperwork on it. She doesn’t really know what the aims of it were [laughs].

I don’t really remember receiving a leaflet or anything about the study, maybe it was just assumed because I’d been in it for a while that I did know and that it had been communicated to me by my mum, but I don’t think it had, I think I just accepted [laugh] that it was a thing I did and that was alright. And I don’t-, I don’t know if it would be in medical notes either. I did think about-, because I spent quite a long time trying to find it online actually, this study. And to work out whether it was run by paediatrics, or dermatology, or oncology, or- or exactly where it was coming from and I couldn’t find anything. Which could be because, you know, if it’s been running for 30 years or it’s stopped a while ago, I don’t know.

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And some people we spoke to did not realise that their loved one would have to move if their needs increased.

Mr S says participants should be open and honest when completing questionnaires for cohort studies.

Age at interview 35

Gender Male

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I would just say that, just be confident and just be open, just be open and honest in how you feel; just express how you feel. If there’s something that you don’t feel comfortable about talking about, then you don’t have to, you’ve even mentioned to me. But if you don’t say something or ask the questions they’re not going to get the answers, so if you can provide information that can obviously get you to that destination where you get the answer then you, you’re going to feel good about yourself because you’ll think, Well I’m going to provide that information, that will help towards finding out an answer for something. I’ve done my bit, so and at the end of the day, you’re getting to meet other people, obviously pass your information on to them. they’re obviously trying their best to gather that information and obviously try and find a result, so you know, I’m all for it in a sense, yeah.

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A few people told us that they had chosen a move to a newly opened care home which had wonderful facilities. But because they were new, there were no reviews and no residents when they looked round so it was difficult to get a feel of the place.

Roland is impressed with the researchers he sees for a study on motor neurone disease (MND). He admire[s] them for their work on a soul-destroying illness.

Age at interview 61

Gender Male

Age at diagnosis 50

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Yes, yes. I mean it’s-. Whenever I go for my six monthly- not check-up but research, if there’s anything that’s cropped up or any problems that have cropped up, issues things I might think I don’t understand, I make sure they’re asked at the session, at the research session. And I haven’t said this before, but it takes the best part of a day. it’s probably, I don’t know, four or five hours. And it also helps pass the time if one can have a discussion about my own PMA or just, you know, MND in general. And the doctors are very enthusiastic, and I have asked them on occasion why they carry on working on a disease which is incurable and debilitating. And it seems to be a, it seems to me to be quite a negative- not negative, that’s the wrong word but soul-destroying illness to be involved with, because in effect they can’t do anything. All they can do is diagnose you and even that can take six months, and that’s partly why the [biomarking] study is hopefully going to provide some quicker means of diagnosing MND. Because the quicker the disease is diagnosed, the quicker people can be put onto riluzole, which is the only drug can help people with MND.

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Moving from one care home to another in a different part of the country can have an impact on the cost of care fees. In particular, care home fees in the south of England are generally more expensive than the north.

Jade took part in a twins study from a young age. She thinks it’s important to check that a child is happy to continue as they grow older and are able to understand more.

Age at interview 25

Gender Female

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I think it’s interesting to take part in a study before you can consent to do so, like meaningfully. I don’t think it’s something I’d ever be really annoyed about because there’d be no other way to get this data unless you started collecting data from children at the age where they can give informed consent. I don’t know when that would be but it definitely wouldn’t be at their age that we started. I guess the benefits of the study outweigh that risk that some people might actually be taking part and not want to. And I suppose there’s what they could do is what we did which is stop when you don’t want to anymore, which is the fairest way to do it I think. So I think that’s potentially an issue but not one that I think is a problem, or not one that I think they did anything wrong.

I guess because we weren’t obviously familiar about why they did these studies. I don’t know if our parents actually told us about the study or asked us if we wanted to take part. I think it would have been-, it would be good if they did and they may well have done, I don’t know. But I’m sure at that age we didn’t have a concept of why we were doing the study. So to be asked to do all these things probably did seem like a bit of an intrusion.

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A few people told us about helping a parent to move to a different care home at the same time as being aware that their money was running low. This meant the council might soon have to start contributing to their care home fees. People said it was important to think about what would happen if they needed help with fees from their council’s adult social care department. For more information about this, see What happens when money for care runs out.

People also told us they were aware of the risks of disrupting an older person’s routine in later years. Andrew and his sisters thought about moving their mum to a different care home but they worried whether this would be the right thing to do. On balance, those who made a move were pleased they had done so.

Emily suggests online questionnaires should have the option to give feedback about the questions asked.

Age at interview 68

Gender Female

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Okay so every survey should end with, "What question should we have asked but didn’t?" And every question should have, you know, confidence in the answer or even just a like and a dislike button because the dislike button you could then when you receive it, if they’ve left their email and it’s not totally confidential, you could go back to them and say, Here’s the question you disliked, what did you dislike about it Well, the question wasn’t clear, and the options didn’t match anything in my lifestyle so my confidence in it was zero, so I just thought you ought to kno.

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