Helping Mary

What was the person’s situation before working with Advocacy Focus?

Mary* is an elderly lady who suffers from dementia and resides in a care home; she was unable to leave the care home without a staff member with her. When we were appointed to support Mary, Mary owned her own home which her son lived in.

Mary didn’t like living in the care home and wished to return to her own home with her son, she didn’t believe she needed to be in the care home and very sternly insisted on being returned home.

How we helped

An Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA) was assigned to support Mary regarding her DoLS authorisation. Although Mary was too ill to return to her home, the Advocate listened carefully to her wishes and successfully managed to arrange regular ‘home visits’ for Mary to return to her familiar home setting and spend quality time with her son.

“If we didn’t challenge the decision to not tell Mary of her son’s passing, she may not have had the chance to pay final respects to her son.”

Our Advocate also arranged for assessments to take place of her abilities to meet her daily living needs. During the Court of Protection Proceedings, Mary’s son unfortunately and unexpectedly passed away from a short term illness. Health professionals debated whether to tell Mary this traumatic information.

Why was advocacy support so effective?

Our Advocate challenged the decision not to tell Mary about her son’s passing, and liaised with professionals and Mary’s family to reach a decision in Mary’s best interest. This resulted in a plan  to tell Mary the news in a sensitive manner which she no doubt would find extremely difficult and upsetting.

Mary was informed of the news in a gentle manner and was able to attend her son’s funeral. Our Advocate said of this particular case; “If we didn’t challenge the decision to not tell Mary of her son’s passing, she may not have had the chance to pay final respects to her son.”

*Names have been changed to protect the people we support.