Jeremy Hunt re elderly care issues

See other thread on loneliness - it seems to be covering the same topic!

Eloethan

I do get very cross about this subject.

My father had 15 minute calls from a care package set up by Social Services. He had 1 hour in the morning to help wash, dress and get his breakfast. He had 30 minutes for lunch. He had 15 minute calls at tea time and then again in the evening to administer tablets. Both of the two 15 minute calls suited him as he only wanted a cup of tea and a snack, microwave meal. If he required assistance getting into bed it was always available. He had wonderful care.

His care package was started whilst LABOUR were in government!!!! Nobody raised the issue then did they? Funny that.

Care packages are usually designed to relate to the needs of the 'client'. It would be stupid of me not to acknowledge that there may be cases where extra time is required but that is a case for Social Services.

I am not by any means dissing the problems involved but I am saying this is not a new issue. I could spit feathers when councils waste so much money on ridiculous schemes and hold substantial sums of money in the bank.

From what you say, POGS, your dad had 2 hours in all, spread across the day and including 1 hour for personal care. That seems fairly reasonable, but, according to all the recent reports, it doesn't appear to be typical. Reports suggest that 15 minute calls are often meant to cover personal care, which is totally inadequate.

Are you saying that Leonard Chesire Disability, which has conducted research on this issue, is making a mountain out of a molehill or that when Labour was in power they would have kept quiet about it? Many complaints have been and continue to be raised by concerned relatives. I find it difficult to believe that their political leanings would prevent them from complaining or induce them to complain.

I am telling you of my experience Eloethan.

I am reminding you and other GN's that this is not a new situation and it is not as clear cut as it may appear. The implication in your OP this is due to budgetary pressure experienced by Local Authorities and your last sentence, whilst relatively harmless, implied JH didn't really care.

I am not saying Leonard Cheshire Disability is making a mountain out of a mole hill, I said I was not dissing the issue. I did not say Labour kept quiet about it when they were in power. I do say there is a target audience to denigrate the present government and if I think there is a whiff of hypocrisy I will say so.

I will repeat my thought that I get annoyed at the level of funding some councils have in the bank and where they delegate their finances.

I am confident that if my father had at any time required extra time the Social Services would have bent over backwards to help us. I wonder why some areas fair better than areas, were we lucky, I don't know. I do accept there is an issue to be addressed on this subject.

I am telling you of my experience Eloethan.

I am reminding you and other GN's that this is not a new situation and it is not as clear cut as it may appear. The implication in your OP this is due to budgetary pressure experienced by Local Authorities and your last sentence, whilst relatively harmless, implied JH didn't really care.

I am not saying Leonard Cheshire Disability is making a mountain out of a mole hill, I said I was not dissing the issue. I did not say Labour kept quiet about it when they were in power. I do say there is a target audience to denigrate the present government and if I think there is a whiff of hypocrisy I will say so.

I will repeat my thought that I get annoyed at the level of funding some councils have in the bank and where they delegate their finances.

I am confident that if my father had at any time required extra time the Social Services would have bent over backwards to help us. I wonder why some areas fair better than areas, were we lucky, I don't know. I do accept there is an issue to be addressed on this subject.

Bugger posted twice.

Visions of inspectors of social care huddled behind the hedge in MIL's garden, stopwatch at the ready.
Pretty bloody difficult to inspect this kind of thing in private houses wouldn't you say.

To start with my mother objected strongly to her 15 minute evening visit as she only needed them to lift her legs into bed - and it cost her £12! As her needs increased so did the amount of time the carers came. 15 minute time slots are fine - as long as the council carers are expected to squeeze an impossible amount of work into that time, as many councils are apparently doing.

What gets me is Mr Hunt suggesting that we're all mean and selfish not having our elderly parents living with us. They shouldn't be in care homes or living alone in which case they're lonely. Yes, it can work for a fortunate few but his generalistic view is very annoying. Bet he doesn't have an elderly parent living with him.

And if he did a) he has the money to buy in care and b) no doubt a large enough house

Do these government ministers care, or even realise, how far removed from ordinary life they are. I posted on the other thread that my experience in social work and in personal life has been that most families do everything they can to care for their vulnerable relatives, old or young. Doesn't matter which culture or class they come from, it's part of being human.

What dotty idea will the next week bring to the political scene I wonder. As well as hunt berating us apparently last week Pickles (is he too lazy to walk from a legal parking place Pickles, you know the one) proposed that double yellow lines should be a kind of flexible thing
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/eric-pickless-plan-to-give-15minute-grace-on-doubleyellow-lines-is-denounced-as-unworkable-8737000.html

My mind is boggling. How do you make double yellow lines flexible?

As in you can get away with the first 10-15 minutes on the yellow line while you give your custom to a needy local business and then (when the high street is grid locked because several of you have done it) you get fined.
But something I observed recently was the wonder of "iron on" yellow lines... When the water company reinstatement team were reinstating they got out these flexible yellow strips, plonked them on top of the reinstated tarmac and heat blasted them. Brillant. So not so daft an idea as you thought anno [tonguestickyoutemoticon]