The five most common mistakes in
care level assessments really happen to so many people, maybe even
you, and this costs many people their care level and thus they lose
money every month. In this video, I'll explain how you can avoid these mistakes. Stay tuned,
it's going to be interesting! Hello everyone, I'm Salomo, and for
a few years now I've been guiding people with care needs through the care level assessment process. I've noticed
that the same mistakes were made again and again in previous assessments. To prevent
these mistakes from happening again, I thought I'd record this video
because it's always the same errors, and this costs care levels and therefore a
lot of money for the people who then have care needs. This has to stop now.
This video will show you point number one: tidy your apartment and make everything nice. You
want to give the care level assessor an impression. You want to give them the impression
that you need a care level because you need support.
The moment
everything is super tidy and looks spotless, the care level assessor can
have doubts. Then explain that you can't manage everything yourself. Of course, it's possible
that your caregiver
was already there shortly before and made everything nice because you were expecting visitors—perfectly natural behavior.
But still, you want to create a positive overall impression so that no
overly critical questions are asked and every single
statement you make isn't scrutinized. That's why, naturally,
assessments can sometimes look a little less than perfect.
Mistake number two is
simply trying too hard to present yourself well. We all know that famous question from job interviews: "
What is your greatest weakness?" And my greatest weakness, for example, is that I'm far too
punctual and work too hard. No, of course not, I have other weaknesses too.
But in a job interview with unfamiliar people, I naturally do
n't feel comfortable revealing these flaws.
But it's so important to do this in the care level assessment,
and I know it's incredibly difficult to tell a complete stranger, whom you've only
met a few minutes before and who's asking you uncomfortable questions, about
your incontinence. But that's…
This harsh, brutal, and unvarnished reality of your situation will ultimately earn you the points you need.
It will help
you achieve a higher care level than you would otherwise have.
So be ruthlessly honest, and yes, this can lead to
better chances. The third mistake is going into the
interview unprepared. The care level assessor has a very clear, detailed plan that they
must follow to determine the points awarded. Everyone can review this plan
and prepare in advance for each question
in the assessment. If you're not well-prepared,
the assessor might finish in just 10 minutes because they
simply ask their questions and then think, "Well, that's fine," and answer many questions
for themselves. Therefore, my advice is to go through the entire catalog of
six modules relevant to the care level assessment and
answer each one. Only then will you be truly satisfied.
Do you also have the chance that all points are truly taken into account
and that you then receive the care level you deserve? My tip at this point
is therefore to write down in detail all your diagnoses, which medications you
take, and what impact these diagnoses have on your life—what symptoms you experience,
where you have difficulties. Even if it seems trivial to you, it can ultimately make
the difference between the entire care level. Mistake number four is going into the
assessment alone. The assessor will expect you to answer the questions you
ask yourself instinctively, because you know what your difficulties are and what your
daily life is like. But the problem is that you often forget
things you wrote down when you prepared well,
and at that moment, you lose points. And the crucial point is that there are
even some points in the care level assessment that you can't
answer yourself. For example, there's the question of whether you can assess risks well, and everyone
naturally thinks that they can. If you do everything perfectly and correctly, otherwise you would
n't have made it to such an advanced age, but unfortunately, things are completely different in old age.
For example, I have
a very personal experience: my dad got older and older, crossing
the street more and more boldly. At some point, I found it surprisingly brave
because he actually had to stop cars coming from both sides—not stop completely, but brake—
so they wouldn't run him over. I told him afterward that I thought it was
very brave of him to force the cars to brake by taking up that space for himself in
traffic.
I actually think that's quite good. The only problem was that he didn't know
the cars had to stop. He completely misjudged the distances
and thought there was plenty of room for him to cross calmly.
The cars were coming much faster than he had anticipated, and
he didn't realize they had to brake for him. If they hadn't seen him,
it would definitely have been very dangerous. That's why it's important that someone close to you,
at least… Having someone else present during this preparation is already helpful, but it's best
if someone else is there too. This is truly one of the biggest crucial
points. If someone else is present and perhaps looks very closely at your written notes from
the preparation to see if all the points have been mentioned, then
you're really in a very good position. Mistake number 5 is not consulting an expert before the care level assessment. There are
several points in the care level assessment
that only an expert can truly evaluate. For example, there's the
psychological module, module 3. No matter how severely your life
is restricted by your psychological problems, you won't receive a single point
if you lack a diagnosis.
It's quite similar with
another module point: if you use physiotherapy, occupational therapy, or speech therapy,
you would normally receive points for that, provided you travel to the
therapy sessions. If the therapists come to you, for example, because their facilities aren't accessible or because
you or they simply can't manage anymore. Going there at that moment won't get you any
points for it. The cool thing is that only the status at the time of the care level
assessment counts. This means that if you know this now, you can prepare and
simply have it stated for the next few weeks that you no longer want home visits,
but that you want to see therapists. At that moment, this
point might be enough for you to get a higher care level. What
happens after that is entirely up to you. That means it could be home visits again,
but you'll keep your care level.
So do me a favor and
definitely consult an expert beforehand. You can consult friends. You can talk to friends
who already have a care level. You can call or go to care support centers.
You can also talk to your care service; they often know about this and have some information to share.
You can talk to care advisors; some of them can
bill the health insurance company, others can't. So there are tons of experts; you
just have to talk to them, and I highly recommend that you talk to the experts. Go through your
problems and ask what else you can do to get even more
points, because there are a few tricks to how you
can achieve that, and then you'll manage to get a higher care level for yourselves. That's all from me, my
dears. I wish you the best of luck with your care level assessment. Take care,
see you next time. Your Salomo. Bye bye..