Care Home

[Dusty Bin]

If a doctor decides an elderly person needs to go into a care home, what is the term used to describe it? I know it's not "consigned" or "placed", but what is the correct verb?

[pixie374]

It's just advice. Nobody can decide except the person. So- advised.

[rsvp]

recommended?

[Bathsheba]

Can only think of "sectioned",..but that's used for people with mental health issues, not the elderly.

[pixie374]

Might also be "committed", but again, it isn't that.

[woofgang]

Doctors can't decide that people need to go into a care home unless they lack capacity to decide for themselves and have no relatives who would be involved. So the phrase for a doctor who decides this is bull sh!77er.

Now more sensibly, what is the context?

[bednobs]

it is placed

[woofgang]

its not placed bedknobs, the doctor can't place anyone anywhere.

[bednobs]

it is placed

[mikey4444]

Admitted ?

[ukbod2015]

As its a recommendation wouldnt referral - he doesnt have the power to actually make it happen I think thats down to Social Services.

[RATTER15]

A GP. can only recommend. no technical term as far as I'm aware.

[woofgang]

Also, the only person he can recommend to is the person themselves or their family if there are capacity issues. This is the same whether the doctor is a hospital doctor or a GP. In hospital, the information to support the "suggestion" is likely to come from the specialist Rehab expert staff who will have worked with the person concerned; sometimes this happens in the community too. In both cases there should be input from the Elderly Mental Health Team. Once the decision has been made to at least consider residential care then funding is considered, at this point Social Services will become involved, also the NHS Nursing Care funding Team. I used to work in Elderly Care both in the community and in local hospitals and I cannot imagine any situation where a doctor could legitimately decide that someone needed residential care and then place that person without the person's agreement and without reference to any other body.....well possibly if the doctor held the persons power of attorney and the person was self funding and lacked the capacity to make their own decisions.

[RATTER15]

Are you thinking "Sectioned" it can happen, but the GP alone cannot do this!

[retrocop]

I agree with bednobs. The recommendation by the hospital my mother was in was that she be given a placement in a care home so therefore she was placed there until she died shortly after.