“Michael Maslinski has unique experience in living in a dementia care home with his wife, and bringing his extensive business experience to bear to help improve the care she received. His new book is a fascinating exposition of what happened – Damian Green”

A former care home resident calls for urgent changes to risk management in the care system, which sometimes damages the lives of vulnerable people it is meant to protect.

I have been encouraged to write this book primarily to share my rare, if not unique, experience of living in a care home 4 nights a week for 9 years. I did so to be with my late wife, who had advanced dementia. The home was one of the best, which I would recommend to friends.

As husband with power of attorney, I took all key decisions regarding my wife’s health and welfare, in her best interests, influenced by my judgment of ‘What would Maggie Do? I did so after listening carefully to expert advice from a variety of professionals including care home management, physiotherapists, doctors and hospital consultants.

But standard solutions did not always meet my wife’s needs and on too many occasions I disagreed with professional advisers. I came to realise that expert advice was sometimes excessively influenced by the need for professionals to protect themselves against sanction or litigation. The approach to risk assessment was highly confused in a number of respects, resulting from the regulatory regime and fear of litigation.

According to least two senior doctors, Maggie would have died 5 years earlier than she did and her quality of life much diminished, but for my interventions. The obvious question is what happens to thousands of others with dementia who do not have a powerful advocate and are left at the mercy of standardised practices, policies and processes?

Drawing on my experience, I offer suggestions for encouraging the use of professional judgment and greater involvement of residents’ representatives, in order to adapt regulations and procedures for individual circumstances.
The need for cultural change is urgent.

Michael Maslinski

What Would Maggie Do? by Michael Maslinski is published by Unicorn, £20 and will be available in all major bookshops and online retailers or direct via www.unicornpublishing.org