‘They Won’t Let Me Remove My Mother From A Maltese Care Home And It’s Breaking Our Hearts’
A grandmother is at the end of her tether after being told she wouldn’t be able to release her mother from a Maltese care home.
Carol Brooks came to Malta from the US after her 95-year-old mother Josephine had a fall and ended up in St Vincent de Paul Residence.
She only planned for a three week stay in Malta, thinking she’d be able to sort out everything to take her mother back with her in this time.
However, she’s now been here for six weeks and is desperate to take her mother back with her to care for her, something she’s beginning to fear is impossible.
“I want to take my mother back to America, so she can be happy being with me and her family,” Brooks told Lovin Malta. “I want to care for her medical and physically for her remaining life, she has no one in Malta, everyday she spends in SVP she deteriorates, she is with people that have serious dementia, she wants to leave and come with me.”
Josephine
“It was initially meant to be a temporary stay of just six months in SVP, and those six months were up in March,” she continued.
“I arrived in Malta and informed the residence that I wanted to take care of her from now on and also requested her medical records… my mother suffers from mild dementia but is very aware of what’s happening, and wants to be with her family now.”
However, issues arose, and Brooks says when SVP officials told her they would not be releasing her mother, and that her brother would need to sign some documents to release her.
“The thing is, my brother isn’t responding to us – he’s in New Zealand,” she said, saying she didn’t know if he had done something behind the family’s back to ensure their mother stays bed-bound in SVP.
“And when I told her I might need to leave Malta without her this week, she broke down and started crying in her bed…”
In footage shown to Lovin Malta, Josephine can be seen crying after being told she might not be able to leave with her daughter and asking if anything can be done.
Brooks says has visited her mother every day for the past six weeks, but needs to return to her family and children and grandchildren of her own in America soon – but she can’t bear to leave her mother alone in a care home for any longer.
“I’ll return in August if anything, but when I told her I might have to leave this week, she began crying, and I just want to do anything I can to help her while I’m here,” Brooks said.
Speaking to Lovin Malta, St Vincent de Paul said that a number of considerations needed to be made whenever considering releasing someone from their care, such as their current health condition.
More than anything, they relied on the recommendations from doctors, consultants and even social workers on a case-by-case basis before they can take a decision to release someone from care.
“The well-being of the patient is always at the forefront of our decisions,” they said.
Have you or a loved one experienced something like this? Contact Lovin Malta in confidence at [email protected]
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