care in the uk - a disgrace

[hash tag]

Another about the shit broken system

Disabled care home residents evicted in charity’s dispute with councils

Exclusive: Leonard Cheshire says it can no longer afford to subsidise care services inadequately funded by councils

www.theguardian.com

 

[Shechemite]

Central government doesn’t allocate anywhere near enough money to local authorities. but let’s not forget LAs are also bastards. As indeed are providers (including Leonard Cheshire)

 

[hash tag]

Sadly, if people had sufficient and adequate support, there would be very little need for people focused charities.

 

[Shechemite]

For sure - but the dynamic works the other way too: if people are abused and/or neglected, and then this is justified by rhetoric that such people are too crazy or lazy or just plain stupid, then it’s harder, not easier to get resources to enable people to live independently and be part of their communities.

I was in a complaints feedback session the other day. Someone wasn’t being supported to have zoom calls with their mum, or to go for walks or have their nails cut. The provider/staff, instead of saying ‘this setting doesn’t have enough staff so we can’t meet peoples needs’ were trying to shift the blame onto the person with ‘because your actions/behaviour you couldn’t have the zoom call/walk/nails cut’. This ‘behaviour’ was having a lie in and taking ‘too long’ to finish their meal (this is in their ‘own home’ no less). Apart from this being a horrible way to treat someone, it’s also music to the ears of those who have no interest in providing the resources for proper community living

Reminds me of the documentary on institutions in Ukraine (emaciated people being tied to beds etc). A situation no doubt caused by the absence of resources for community living, but the nurses comment on the poor sods in there “this is natures diagnosis” is (as well as being horrible and a patently racial comment) isn’t exactly the sort of mindset that will lead to better funding for community living.

 

[Shechemite]

26 of your life locked away (beginning aged 17), put in a dormitory with nonces (eventually upgraded to a broom cupboard). Sleeping on a piss-soaked mattress, eventually released albeit shuffling and hunched shouldered. Dead at 46

Muckamore Inquiry: Mother says son's life was stolen from him

The inquiry hears from a mother who says her 17-year-old son was on a locked ward with sex offenders.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[hash tag]

A botched discharge and insufficient care; where have I heard that before

Historian died after being exposed to ‘appalling’ home care

A noted historian died from a preventable bone infection after being exposed to “appalling” home care following a botched discharge from hospital, a coroner has found.

www.standard.co.uk

 

[brogdale]

Albeit in the middle of the winterval news desert; it's good to see the Guardian lead with this:



Am currently in the middle of a complaint against my FiL's provider that includes every failing mentioned in this report; things are falling apart rapidly.

 

[cesare]

Just had a very sad call with my friend whose birthday it is today. She is looking after her sister (10 years younger than my friend, with early onset dementia and in a hospital bed on the ground floor of their home) with the assistance of the hospital acute response team who come in 4x a day. My friend's health is failing (she is losing balance and suffering heart problems, the GP says because of stress). The local council are not organising nursing care for my friend's sister or if they are their interpretation of "urgent respite care" bears no relation to how you and I might define "urgent" since this has been going on since early November. My friend's sister can no longer fend for herself at all and she screams and rages incessantly (I could hear this on the call). I'm very worried that all this might kill my friend

 

[brogdale]

Just had a very sad call with my friend whose birthday it is today. She is looking after her sister (10 years younger than my friend, with early onset dementia and in a hospital bed on the ground floor of their home) with the assistance of the hospital acute response team who come in 4x a day. My friend's health is failing (she is losing balance and suffering heart problems, the GP says because of stress). The local council are not organising nursing care for my friend's sister or if they are their interpretation of "urgent respite care" bears no relation to how you and I might define "urgent" since this has been going on since early November. My friend's sister can no longer fend for herself at all and she screams and rages incessantly (I could hear this on the call). I'm very worried that all this might kill my friend

Yep, complete system breakdown; the reason my FiL ended up in a failing, sanctioned setting was because the LA could not physically conjure up the at home care package. It's all FUBAR

 

[cesare]

Yep, complete system breakdown; the reason my FiL ended up in a failing, sanctioned setting was because the LA could not physically conjure up the at home care package. It's all FUBAR

The hospital that my mum was in said that she couldn't be discharged back home because she needed nursing care and couldn't look after herself. They gave us limited choice over where they discharged her (no POA ) but it was at least to a nursing home reasonably accessible to my brother and me; on the COVID pathway at the time.

This was the same county but a different Borough to my friend. I don't know why they discharged my friend's sister back to their home rather than directly to a nursing home

 

[brogdale]

And the safeguarding board will conclude that lessons have to be learnt and that improvements have to made at the setting....

Man living in care home found dead - with fellow resident arrested for ‘murder’

The 60-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene despite efforts by paramedics

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Shechemite]

What it won’t conclude is that it’s a bit shit to shunt 10 people (all with multiple and profound needs) together to ‘live’ in a facility

 

[hash tag]

It's the end of the world as we know it....being having a nightmare over Christmas with carers, 999 and 111. It's been a mess, one huge almighty mess.

 

[hash tag]

This is care, at the other end of the age scale

Six women arrested after boy, one, dies at Dudley nursery

They are held on suspicion of manslaughter offences following his death last month.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[GarveyLives]

"My job is to protect you or your parents or grandparents from the fear of having to sell your home to pay for the costs of care and so I am announcing now – on the steps of Downing Street – that we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all with a clear plan we have prepared to give every older person the dignity and security they deserve ..."

Source: Boris Johnson's first speech as Prime Minister, 24 July 2019

(Source: eastdevonwatch.org)​

Three and a half years later ...

"In 15 minutes two agency care workers were expected to wake her (a woman with dementia), prepare a meal and a drink, ensure she ate and drank, administer her medication, change her incontinence pad, administer any personal care and tidy the kitchen."

Source: Council providing three-minute care visits to vulnerable, finds ombudsman

 

[hash tag]

"My job is to protect you or your parents or grandparents from the fear of having to sell your home to pay for the costs of care and so I am announcing now – on the steps of Downing Street – that we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all with a clear plan we have prepared to give every older person the dignity and security they deserve ..."

Source: Boris Johnson's first speech as Prime Minister, 24 July 2019

(Source: eastdevonwatch.org)​

Three and a half years later ...

"In 15 minutes two agency care workers were expected to wake her (a woman with dementia), prepare a meal and a drink, ensure she ate and drank, administer her medication, change her incontinence pad, administer any personal care and tidy the kitchen."

Source: Council providing three-minute care visits to vulnerable, finds ombudsman

Sadly not at all surprised.

 

[GarveyLives]

A "despicable" carer stole more than £100,000 from an elderly woman and continued withdrawing money from her bank account after she died:

Cruel conman stole hundreds of pounds from pensioner on day her husband died

(Source: Merseyside Police)​

Paul McFadden was one of three carers appointed by agency Be Caring to tend to the widow and her husband - both of whom were then aged 78 - in 2019 after she suffered a fall and a deterioration in her health. She had previously been her partner's primary carer after he suffered a severe stroke in 2006. Paul McFadden continued to visit the vulnerable woman after he had been sacked for falsifying records of his care visits.

 

[hash tag]

This is just beyond belief and words fail me. I'm so angry and so sad
BBC News - Children punched and locked out naked in care homes rated 'good'

Children punched and hit over the head in care homes rated ‘good’

Former staff and leaked papers reveal shocking abuse claims at three South Yorkshire children's homes.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[RainbowTown]

This is just beyond belief and words fail me. I'm so angry and so sad
BBC News - Children punched and locked out naked in care homes rated 'good'

Children punched and hit over the head in care homes rated ‘good’

Former staff and leaked papers reveal shocking abuse claims at three South Yorkshire children's homes.

www.bbc.co.uk

And, of course, like so many of these scandals, the usual 'sincere apologies', 'lessons will be learnt', 'measures will be put in place' etc etc, will be trotted out, until the next time it happens, and the time after that......

 

[hash tag]

And, of course, like so many of these scandals, the usual 'sincere apologies', 'lessons will be learnt', 'measure will be put in place' etc etc, will be trotted out, until the next time it happens, and the time after that......

Its difficult to know where to start with that.
Carers reports ignored.
Passed ofstead inspections.

 

[Chilli.s]

This is just beyond belief and words fail me. I'm so angry and so sad
BBC News - Children punched and locked out naked in care homes rated 'good'

Children punched and hit over the head in care homes rated ‘good’

Former staff and leaked papers reveal shocking abuse claims at three South Yorkshire children's homes.

www.bbc.co.uk

This is absolutely incredible news and shows a system of supposed care that fails at almost every level.

When the company that was contracted to provide care was brought to task about its performance it closed the homes down. An admission of failure, and with the apology hints at some level of insight into its failure. Paid huge sums for each of its inmates during its history, I wonder if this doesnt show a level of deception that could be called fraud.

 

[Mogden]

I'm about to leave the industry, maybe for good. Nothing surprises me. I reckon you find really bloody good teachers more readily than a half decent social care staff person. Those being supported often can't ask or answer so are taken advantage of.

 

[hash tag]

So this poor woman was apparently failed by social services but what about her family....after 3years, really. If they had been worried about her and didn't want to make contact directly, why didn't they ask someone to visit?
BBC News - Laura Winham: Surrey woman lay dead in flat for three years, say family

Laura Winham: Surrey woman lay dead in flat for three years, say family

Laura Winham, 38, who had schizophrenia, was found in a "mummified, almost skeletal state".

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[GarveyLives]

Disturbing:

UK dementia care agency’s half-hour home visits ‘lasted as little as three minutes’

 

[hash tag]

Shocking and not surprising. The carers are under so much pressure and know it's easy to get away with it.

 

[Shechemite]

Like far too many deaths of people with learning disabilities, Ben’s death was premature and preventable. It took place in a hospital which regulators knew was inadequate, where at least two other people had already died.

Gina Egmore, mother of Ben King said: “Throughout the two weeks of the inquest I had to listen to and watch some truly harrowing evidence, including CCTV showing staff at Cawston Park twice striking my son and failing to raise the alarm when he went into cardiac arrest.”

Ben King: Inquest finds failures in care of man with Down’s syndrome at Cawston Park Hospital

13 July 2021

www.inquest.org.uk

NHSE have released a review into the care of those in LD inpatient units. It’s not good, and very few people will ever read or even now about it

 

[GarveyLives]

"My job is to protect you or your parents or grandparents from the fear of having to sell your home to pay for the costs of care and so I am announcing now – on the steps of Downing Street – that we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all with a clear plan we have prepared to give every older person the dignity and security they deserve ..."

Source: Boris Johnson's first speech as Prime Minister, 24 July 2019

(Source: eastdevonwatch.org)​

Three and a half years later ...

"In 15 minutes two agency care workers were expected to wake her (a woman with dementia), prepare a meal and a drink, ensure she ate and drank, administer her medication, change her incontinence pad, administer any personal care and tidy the kitchen."

Source: Council providing three-minute care visits to vulnerable, finds ombudsman

More on the plan in this morning's news:

"More than 60,000 adults with disabilities and long-term illnesses in England were chased for debts by councils last year after failing to pay for their social care support at home ..."

Social care costs see thousands chased for debt

 

[Shechemite]

I do wish certain groups/individuals didn’t use other people’s misery to promote themselves. It doesn’t do anything to help the cause, its undignified (given the awful subject matter), and feeds into the bizarrely competitive ‘celebrity’ aspect of disability politics. It’s no coincidence that Trot/Tankie sects are rife within the ‘social justice’/anti-cuts wing of disability activism, it’s all very much like flooding demos with your groups placards to inflate your importance.

If you’ve never had a girlfriend or much else to give your life meaning it acts as a palliative I guess.

I know a lot of people who have been pivotal in getting the issues of social care cuts/charges/abuse into the public domain who have never, and will never, got/get any media ‘recognition’ for their efforts, and who aren’t motivated to do so. Sorry I find this whole ‘look at me’ stuff so fucking naff.

At least they’re not frequenting Russia Today/RT and parroting their propaganda lines though. I’ll take that as a win.

 

[Shechemite]

Rant aside, cheers for sharing this Garvey

 

[hash tag]

I do wish certain groups/individuals didn’t use other people’s misery to promote themselves. It doesn’t do anything to help the cause, its undignified (given the awful subject matter), and feeds into the bizarrely competitive ‘celebrity’ aspect of disability politics. It’s no coincidence that Trot/Tankie sects are rife within the ‘social justice’/anti-cuts wing of disability activism, it’s all very much like flooding demos with your groups placards to inflate your importance.

If you’ve never had a girlfriend or much else to give your life meaning it acts as a palliative I guess.

I know a lot of people who have been pivotal in getting the issues of social care cuts/charges/abuse into the public domain who have never, and will never, got/get any media ‘recognition’ for their efforts, and who aren’t motivated to do so. Sorry I find this whole ‘look at me’ stuff so fucking naff.

At least they’re not frequenting Russia Today/RT and parroting their propaganda lines though. I’ll take that as a win.

Yes, it's divisive and manipulating. The people behind those things are really appealing to peoples emotions to rub the point in
nut probably more than anything, they are trying to say how shit the government are and to a point, it works for some people.
It's like when they show bereaved people on television or a donkey thats on its last legs

I had dropped by to post the thing about the funding crisis but see GarveyLives has long since beaten me to it. It's crap.
They don't want people to go into care but stay at home yet they won't fund care for them. I know a number of clients desperately in
need of more care but they cant or wont afford it. lunchtime I had to go out to a client who had just received a letter seconds earlier
to say her allowances had been chopped in half This is Wandsworth where some of the richest people (not) in the country who pay
the least council tax.
Is the estimate that there are 5 million unpaid carers in the UK, many of them are children who should be concentrating on schooling
or out socialising, not making their parents dinner or changing their catheter .