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Council 'misled mental patient'
Written by Jonathan Malory   
Ombudsman orders £37,000 payout after woman sold flat to finance nursing home stay
Mark Branagan - Yorkshire Post Today

A YORK woman desperate to leave psychiatric hospital was misled by social workers into selling her flat to pay for a £2,000-a-month stay in a private old people's home, according to an investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman.
York Council was yesterday found guilty of maladministration causing injustice over its handling of the case – and ordered to pay her £37,000, plus three years' interest, towards her nursing home bill.
Because the woman, who cannot be named, was detained under the Mental Health Act, the council had a duty to find her somewhere to live when she was released and was not allowed to charge her, the report says.
The Ombudsman, Jerry White, said the authority had misled the woman and her family into taking a rushed decision concerning her aftercare – by telling them she might have to stay in hospital another 12 months while the council arranged to provide her with free accommodation.
Council lawyers had recommended the woman would be entitled to £1,280 a month towards the cost of her new home but this advice was not followed by the authority.
Mr White said: "There should have been no 12-month wait for funding had an appropriate placement been identified. Such a long wait was intrinsically unreasonable."
The family had found somewhere for their mother, albeit at more than the council was prepared to pay.
"I see no reason why the council should not have followed its own legal advice and offered funding of £1,280 on the understanding the woman was willing to meet the balance," he added.
The case began in March 2003 when the council began planning for the patient's release. It had been expected she would go back to her flat but a trial visit did not go well and it was decided she needed to go into a home.
Her family said she was getting more and more distressed in hospital because other patients were very confused. They shouted, screamed, sometimes took their clothes off, and men wandered into their mother's room.
Her daughter found a suitable residential care home within walking distance of her home with a vacant ground floor room, which was important because her mother was often unsteady on her feet.
A social worker, however, said he had discussed the case with colleagues and it was his understanding the family could not just find a care home and expect the council to pay all the bills.
He advised the family they would have to go through the normal official channels involving one part of the authority approving a choice of care home and another section of the council approving the funding of the place, which could all take 12 months.
Rather than wait, and fearing the private place they had found would be lost unless they took it up, the family agreed to go private, but later complained to the Ombudsman they felt that they had been rushed into a decision.
The Ombudsman was also concerned the woman had signed a discharge form when she was released from hospital, waiving her rights to the funding of the aftercare to which she was entitled under the Mental Health Act. Officials said this had been done to avoid any delays in the discharge, which was also the reason given for not carrying out a further assessment of the patient's aftercare needs.
Mr White said that normally the council could arrange an assessment within two or three days, which they could have done in this case, and this was another reason for his finding of maladministration.
Bill Hodson, York Council's acting director of community services, said: "The council wants to consider a detailed response to the report and will be doing so within the three month period allowed."
 
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