care in the uk - a disgrace

[hash tag]

Would you want specialist care by someone on minimum wages who has had no training. Would you want to go around cleaning people up when you only get paid when at a clients and no pay when travelling between clients. This is an utter disgrace, dont get old or infirm...

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/09/former-nhs-carers-intensify-strike-over-pay

 

[ash]

Would you want specialist care by someone on minimum wages who has had no training. Would you want to go around cleaning people up when you only get paid when at a clients and no pay when travelling between clients. This is an utter disgrace, dont get old or infirm...

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/09/former-nhs-carers-intensify-strike-over-pay

This, sadly is the norm. I have known carers being given a 15 mon slot to get someone up, washed breakfast etc and expected to be somewhere 30 mins away in 10 mins with no pay for travel. Carers do 2 hours from 7-9 and then 12-2 and then 6-9 non pay in between. Lone carers going to some really dodgy places at midnight. It's crap but the councils bid down the contracts.

 

[bmd]

People with no motivation to care for others are being employed in these roles. 1 weeks training and then off you go. Looking after Autistic people, those with chronic mental health problems and similar. Don't get me wrong, the people being cared for do still access trained professionals but these carers see them most often and have the most input into their lives.

It is scandalous.

 

[toggle]

I've been trying to find the links, but there were reports about some of the care providing companies being chosen by the council on the grounds of lowest bid who had been listed as not meeting minimum standards.

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

Privateers make money. Untermensch who dont produce for capital dont matter jack, and if it gets too much then at least Operation Early Bump-off may get its foot in the door, wearing a liberal smile.

 

[Buckaroo]

One of the most sinister aspects of care contracts is reducing levels of support under the guise of 'promoting independence'. A few hours of crappy 'life skills' training and hey presto he/she can now live independently with just someone popping in to help with the basics. At one meeting I suggested using Skype and reducing the need for human contact altogether. Not everyone realised I wasn't being serious

 

[coley]

One of the most sinister aspects of care contracts is reducing levels of support under the guise of 'promoting independence'. A few hours of crappy 'life skills' training and hey presto he/she can now live independently with just someone popping in to help with the basics. At one meeting I suggested using Skype and reducing the need for human contact altogether. Not everyone realised I wasn't being serious

You are spot on,its happening to us, we are being told even the most LD of our residents can manage 'independent living' it's their (social services)way of getting rid of residential care contracts.
They guff on about promoting ' independence' but in reality its about passing on costs to the councils (housing benefits) and the DWP then replacing 24 hour care with pop in visits

 

[hash tag]

The skype thing was first trialled a few years back as on line or virtual hospital wards. It was used to keep someones needs under review for the likes of people with diabetes or recent discharges from hospital.
In wandsworth, to keep the council tax down, we have dispenced with meals on wheels, chopped out day centres....

 

[Greebo]

Firstly - if people are paid they are not carers - they are careworkers.

Secondly - let's keep words like "age" "infirm" and "frail" out of this please - disability and longterm illness are not necessarily age-related. No matter how many elderly people have become so sick or disabled that they need meals on wheels etc, their age has nothing to do with them needing that support.

Thirdly - if you think that the amount of training given to careworkers is shamefully low, consider that given to carers; often none, love or at least guilt/duty is supposed to be enough. Maybe topped up with what can be gleaned from the internet or a book.

I'm not saying that careworkers are adequately paid, trained, or supported - for every few who are, I'm sure that many more are not. However, if you really want to address where the money goes when it comes to care, look at the agencies. Book somebody to come into your home to help you eat, bathe, shower, or dress and you might well be charged £18 an hour. Meanwhile, the careworker will be lucky if they see even half of that money.

 

[_angel_]

One place my sister worked was told they weren't allowed to change nappies at night time, no matter what. This was meant to empower them. The place was covered in shit.

 

[coley]

Firstly - if people are paid they are not carers - they are careworkers.

Secondly - let's keep words like "age" "infirm" and "frail" out of this please - disability and longterm illness are not necessarily age-related. No matter how many elderly people have become so sick or disabled that they need meals on wheels etc, their age has nothing to do with them needing that support.

Thirdly - if you think that the amount of training given to careworkers is shamefully low, consider that given to carers; often none, love or at least guilt/duty is supposed to be enough. Maybe topped up with what can be gleaned from the internet or a book.

I'm not saying that careworkers are adequately paid, trained, or supported - for every few who are, I'm sure that many more are not. However, if you really want to address where the money goes when it comes to care, look at the agencies. Book somebody to come into your home to help you eat, bathe, shower, or dress and you might well be charged £18 an hour. Meanwhile, the careworker will be lucky if they see even half of that money.

There should be a legally enforceable ratio between what the agency charges and what proportion of that charge is paid in wages, at least two thirds would be reasonable.

 

[coley]

Privateers make money. Untermensch who dont produce for capital dont matter jack, and if it gets too much then at least Operation Early Bump-off may get its foot in the door, wearing a liberal smile.

It's already here, assisted dying debate etc

 

[Greebo]

One place my sister worked was told they weren't allowed to change nappies at night time, no matter what. This was meant to empower them. The place was covered in shit.

 

[Orang Utan]

Glad my parents live where they do. Care giving provision is excellent compared to the rest of the country it seems. It shouldn't be a geographic lottery though.
(Mind you, the caregivers don't get a good deal as employees - they have to do split shifts and get paid fuck all. They have to drive between clients - dunno how you're supposed to afford running a car on suchow wages).

 

[Greebo]

You know all those jobs which used to be advertised as "suitable for a student or pensioner"? Things like part time shopwork or delivering papers?

There are pensioners who take on agency carework to subsidise their pension because they don't have to work every day, nor do they have to do more than a few hours per day/evening. And they enjoy the warm moral glow of it (or the human contact) while being paid on top of that. No job should be so badly paid that you can only afford to take it except as secondary income.

 

[Orang Utan]

I've not seen any pensioners! All women from 20s to 40s.

 

[_angel_]

Glad my parents live where they do. Care giving provision is excellent compared to the rest of the country it seems. It shouldn't be a geographic lottery though.
(Mind you, the caregivers don't get a good deal as employees - they have to do split shifts and get paid fuck all. They have to drive between clients - dunno how you're supposed to afford running a car on suchow wages).

My next door neighbour does this, but she doesn't drive. I can only assume they must send her to less places or maybe she stays each person a bit longer.

 

[Orang Utan]

My next door neighbour does this, but she doesn't drive. I can only assume they must send her to less places or maybe she stays each person a bit longer.

They pair them up so one of them drives (well they do at my mum's care company)

 

[hash tag]

Oh Greebo, you are so right about age Etc. I'm sorry for wrong impression given, I was so annoyed when I came accross this story. Likewise carers and careworkers! Many of the people I have experienced in the "care industry" are mainly young and whose English I find difficult to understand; good knows what a client of poor hearing makes of them?

Because of pressures they are under, they will often not stop to chat for 2 minutes, simply because of the pressure they are put under by their employers who care about nothing more than making a profit.

The last care worker I spoke to a day or two ago had had little or no training. When I called her,she said the client could not mobilise.
How long has client been like this? Well they were like it for lunchtime call and afternoon call.
What action did you take? I sat them in their chair.
How do you think they will manage when you are not there? Dont know, I didnt think.
Did you not think some sort of medical examimanation might help? I have not been told about when to call GP!

 

[coley]

Oh Greebo, you are so right about age Etc. I'm sorry for wrong impression given, I was so annoyed when I came accross this story. Likewise carers and careworkers! Many of the people I have experienced in the "care industry" are mainly young and whose English I find difficult to understand; good knows what a client of poor hearing makes of them?

Because of pressures they are under, they will often not stop to chat for 2 minutes, simply because of the pressure they are put under by their employers who care about nothing more than making a profit.

The last care worker I spoke to a day or two ago had had little or no training. When I called her,she said the client could not mobilise.
How long has client been like this? Well they were like it for lunchtime call and afternoon call.
What action did you take? I sat them in their chair.
How do you think they will manage when you are not there? Dont know, I didnt think.
Did you not think some sort of medical examimanation might help? I have not been told about when to call GP!

What I'd like to know is what background checks are made on on non UK nationals working in the care industry how can you do a CRB on somebody from Europe or the Philippines,how can you check their references are genuine and how can you employ someone who can't speak English to a decent standard?

 

[hash tag]

What I'd like to know is what background checks are made on on non UK nationals working in the care industry how can you do a CRB on somebody from Europe or the Philippines,how can you check their references are genuine and how can you employ someone who can't speak English to a decent standard?

Employng a poor English speaker is very easy I imagine, but whether they make for someone who is a good carer/careworker, well thats another issue.
These companies just want and care about their profits, not necessarily the service they provide. Sorry, Can't answer your point about CRB's.

 

[panpete]

It's a lose-lose situation all round and a really bad vibe for carerworkers and clients.
In a situation where someone needs care, there needs to be a good vibe, i.e. happy and motivated care workers and happy clients.

Situations where workers are only doing it for the money, are under stress, and don't have time for hardly any human interaction with clients is demoralising for the client and also for the worker, not to mention dangerous.

If nappies etc are not changed often enough, the skin becomes sore and ulcerated.
If severely disabled people are not moved enough, they can get pressure sores which can become ulcerated and life threatening.
Lack of food can have a devastating effect.
Lack of human interaction can cause someone to become mentally ill or even suicidal.

Care work is a vocation in my view, but in the culture of money and scarcity, many people without a vocation will work for care firms just to put food on the table.
No good work ever came out of workers who are there out of necessity and not out of vocation.
Even those care workers who have a vocation are demotivated by poor working conditions.
The most destructive de-motivating factor is excess pressure.
Excess pressure never did careworker or client any good, or workers/customers/clients in any field of work.

I cannot help but think that this is a deliberate plan to put people off asking for care and to increase vulnerability or worry about becoming vulnerable.
I would even go so far as saying, to kill people off, i.e. the very disabled, the old etc.
It smacks of covert nazizm, where the least able and most vulnerable are subtly being killed off, maybe not with guns or other forms of execution, rather, being left to die from neglect or inadequate care and support, be it financial or other.

One of the darkest aspects of this is un-motivated care workers who don't have the people skills necessary for the work could be more likely to abuse, neglect or exploit people in thier care.

It seems that a lot of staff with no ability to empathise are in jobs where they are in charge of people. Not just in care situations, but in situations like policing and prison officers, but that's for another thread.

In any situation where money is prioritised over people, things get very ugly.

 

[coley]

Employng a poor English speaker is very easy I imagine, but whether they make for someone who is a good carer/careworker, well thats another issue.
These companies just want and care about their profits, not necessarily the service they provide. Sorry, Can't answer your point about CRB's.

One of the requirements of any care company is good communication between staff and service users, employing someone who can't fully understand English is downright dangerous and in breach of CQC standards.

 

[Orang Utan]

What I'd like to know is what background checks are made on on non UK nationals working in the care industry how can you do a CRB on somebody from Europe or the Philippines,how can you check their references are genuine and how can you employ someone who can't speak English to a decent standard?

CRBs don't exist anymore. We now have DBS checks and they seem to cast the net wider, internationally, as I found out to my cost recently.
As for English, I guess it's just like any job. You need to speak English well enough to communicate with people who may not be able to communicate well themselves. It's quite a skilled job. Not just anyone can do it.

 

[coley]

CRBs don't exist anymore. We now have DBS checks and they seem to cast the net wider, internationally, as I found out to my cost recently.
As for English, I guess it's just like any job. You need to speak English well enough to communicate with people who may not be able to communicate well themselves. It's quite a skilled job. Not just anyone can do it.

It's a very skilled job and it needs time and patience to do it properly, aye DBS as it is now, but I doubt if they are reliable outside the UK, the CRB for enhanced disclosure could let you know if someone was dodgy even if they had no convictions.

 

[panpete]

What about poor foreign national clients who can't speak very good English?
There is no longer any time for the care worker to slowly explain things to the client in a way they understand.

 

[Orang Utan]

It's a very skilled job and it needs time and patience to do it properly, aye DBS as it is now, but I doubt if they are reliable outside the UK, the CRB for enhanced disclosure could let you know if someone was dodgy even if they had no convictions.

I had my identity stolen and someone did crimes in my name in Italy that only came up on the DBS.

 

[coley]

Panpete@

Spot on in all respects, though you have missed out on the quality of social workers, which in my particular experience, I find the quality is going down hard, with the 'old hands' who cared deeply being forced out and being replaced by bean counters who's only concern is their inflated wages and keeping budgets down.

 

[Orang Utan]

Though I don't think they really want to.kill anyone. That's overstating the case somewhat.

 

[_angel_]

What I'd like to know is what background checks are made on on non UK nationals working in the care industry how can you do a CRB on somebody from Europe or the Philippines,how can you check their references are genuine and how can you employ someone who can't speak English to a decent standard?

It takes forever.