Following on from my previous thread http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=178910 we are in the process of sourcing a nursing home for this relative who has dementia.
We have submitted the application for the Fair Deal scheme and hopefully it will not take too long as they are in hospital at present.
In viewing one of the homes they mentioned in passing about a social charge of €130.00 per month. We hadn't heard anything about this in some others that we visited. One or two didn't even have a brochure or web site despite coming highly recommended by quite a few friends.
We are hoping that with having a medical card (which should cover a lot of the medical requirements) there won't be too many other 'hidden' charges, but, just wondering what else should we be aware of other than hairdressing, laundry, newspapers and others. This couple live mainly on their state pensions and their small savings will dwindle very quickly with even day to day costs. They were used to two pensions but 80% of one will now go towards the costs of the nursing home.
Another thing that was mentioned was that despite hearing regularly that it is possible to move the patient from one home to another if the family are not happy that this is not realistic in light of the shortage of places for dementia and other illnesses.
We have submitted the application for the Fair Deal scheme and hopefully it will not take too long as they are in hospital at present.
In viewing one of the homes they mentioned in passing about a social charge of €130.00 per month. We hadn't heard anything about this in some others that we visited. One or two didn't even have a brochure or web site despite coming highly recommended by quite a few friends.
We are hoping that with having a medical card (which should cover a lot of the medical requirements) there won't be too many other 'hidden' charges, but, just wondering what else should we be aware of other than hairdressing, laundry, newspapers and others. This couple live mainly on their state pensions and their small savings will dwindle very quickly with even day to day costs. They were used to two pensions but 80% of one will now go towards the costs of the nursing home.
Another thing that was mentioned was that despite hearing regularly that it is possible to move the patient from one home to another if the family are not happy that this is not realistic in light of the shortage of places for dementia and other illnesses.