So today was a pretty astonishing day, we woke up this morning not really knowing what to expect from today’s meeting. As people started arriving Chris CHC assessor, Fiona (CHC Team Leader), Sarah (GP), Val & Lynda (District Nurses), Amin & Gurbash (Social Workers) and the 4 of us.
As we were going through the DST (Decision Support Tool) I think it was fair to say I felt a little out of my depth. I find it hard sitting in a room where people are discussing your reliance on others, throughout this process it has always been something I have struggled to get clear in my mind, but it is something I have to be honest with. We were going through the domains (headings) on the form, which included behaviour & cognition where I don’t really have any care requirements but also others such as mobility & skin (Due to my open wounds caused from my Crohn's) where I have high care needs. Each demain we had score from no needs, low, medium & high, some demains also had a severe option.
So after 2 hours and a lot of talking Fiona who was chairing the meeting, which meant she didn’t really participate in the discussion, as her role was purely to oversee proceedings, asked everyone if they thought my primary care requirements were health. It was purely the decision of the professionals and not of the 4 family members, but as she went round the table everyone was in agreement that my primary need was indeed health. The final person to make a decision was Chris (CHC assessor), he made it unanimous.
This was brilliant, for Chris to agree was a massive plus and after nearly 18 months of this process to finally get this outcome was the best way to end the year. Fiona also confirmed that she would have agreed if she had been in Chris’s shoes. Everyone has helped me so much along the way, which has kept me going after hitting a lot of hurdles. So Sarah, Lynda, Amin & Gurbash left and Fiona and Chris stayed with Val just to go through the next stage with us. Once it has been ratified on Friday someone will be round in the first two weeks of the new year to go through the details of my care package and to talk about agencies.
They will talk about the details of my care package whilst I am still living at home and then also discuss if I am to live independently what they will put in place to assist with this. I was finding it hard to get my head round all the details, I felt like I should be going mental but I felt quite flat. I think when I start seeing it all in action early next year I will get more excited.
It was hard to go into work after, so much was going round in my head thinking about what impact this will have in 2012. When I arrived, the office was empty as everyone was out at lunch for our Production Managers birthday, which was yesterday. It was quite nice actually as it meant I could knuckle down a bit and catch up on some stuff which needed sorting for people going out filming later today.
To cap the day off when I got home we had a really nice evening with Matt & Layla coming over for a takeaway curry, Dad had also been to get the Christmas tree as well. Even though it wasn’t decorated yet, it was still great to have it and it started feeling like the start of the festive period. The curry was lovely and was the best way to celebrate the days events, I was completely stuffed though once we had finished.
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