Forum Topic

Are Ealing Council picking on the vulnerable?

A friend has received letters from the council, claiming that a seriously ill pensioner will have to pay for care after eight months. The occupational therapy at hospital said that care was needed and arranged it. Is there a difference between asking for care or being told that you need care?Major adaptations at home have to be made, such as a walk in shower with seat and access to the property. A financial assessment has now got to be made and has been made aware that they may have to take out a bank loan/mortgage to cover some of the cost. Cant see the banks giving loans to pensioners on state pension and disability benefits.Sounds like the council are penny pinching from the poorest and most vulnerable, especially when the leader of the council lives in social housing and owns a home worth over £1m+. The council should sort out their own shortcomings before making someone penniless and causing distress.How much lower in the depth of depravity can this council sink?

Ewan Howard ● 4055d9 Comments

http://www.socialcareworker.co/2015/06/10/sustained-additional-funding-needed-as-cuts-loom/There are more stories in the press about care homes being considered unfit and unsafe by the CQC.  Again and again you hear people saying that there aren't enough staff.  This is the same story across the NHS and home care companies.Please make sure you that you visit your relatives and keep in touch with them.  In can be difficult to telephone them in a care home unless they have mastered a mobile.  The situation is not at all satisfactory.

Philippa Bond ● 4040d

http://www.socialcareworker.co/2015/06/10/sustained-additional-funding-needed-as-cuts-loom/There are more stories in the press about care homes being considered unfit and unsafe by the CQC.  Again and again you hear people saying that there aren't enough staff.  This is the same story across the NHS and home care companies.

Philippa Bond ● 4040d

You can see why the charities are so desperate to get funding and are now in trouble for being overenthusiastic - because a lot of social problems are being pushed into their hands.We have many elderly now who can't deal with our fast changing technology at all which isn't surprising since many of the less elderly find it quite hard to keep up.Add to that rationing of care eg hearing aids and hospital transport and it is no surprise that people are becoming increasingly isolated.  If they could meet up more in buildings that were accessible then they might be able to discuss and sort out some of their problems themselves (if they aren't too embarrassed to which is another big problem).It brings tears to my eyes when I think of an elderly relative who had cancer and a Macmillan nurse visiting but to whom no one had explained and shown the washable (or even the throw-away) mats that you can buy for less than £10 (washable) that you can use to protect a chair against incontinence.  People are sent home from hospital completely unprepared, catheterized and in many cases hardly able to walk.  No wonder they are more likely to have accidents of all kinds, and become isolated.  Sometimes I wonder whether the intention is that they should die of shame.  For £10 - or 2 x £10?And here are we using the internet to buy things with options of all sorts of different products.  How can this be right?Carers are usually paid minimum wage and they are often not paid for the travel time between clients so they "clip" the time spent with a client.  This is not helped when their timetables don't allow them to spend the allotted time with each client.  And not helped again when everything has to be explained all over again each time a different carer attends.  There can be a complete lack of continuity of care.  On the other hand you just might strike lucky.  (Oh and the fear of incontinence is worse than the reality.)

Philippa Bond ● 4051d

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/social-care-and-support-guide/Pages/funding-care.aspx

Philippa Bond ● 4053d

It also is bizarre that a carer who retires and takes their pension can then lose their carer's allowance - even though they are still caring for the person concerned.

Philippa Bond ● 4053d

That's shocking.According to LBE social services, you are allowed six weeks free before financial assessment.My friend is considering removing the care and becoming a burden on the NHS. So much for care in the community.

Ewan Howard ● 4053d

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/documents/en-gb/campaigns/cic/care_in_crisis_report_2013.pdf?dtrk=true

Philippa Bond ● 4054d

Yes it is where the first Council cuts came when the Coalition government came into power.  I'm sure a lot of it is pure politics because you can push the blame onto someone else.  The vulnerable are less able to quickly muster a big defence making it an easy start.  Carers are too busy caring to able to find the extra time and there is likely to be less social media capability.  So Day Care Centres which were accessible and which gave carers some respite and where problems could be shared and solutions found were quickly disposed of.Elderly social care in the UK is desperately underfunded and the government has put off putting a cap on the amount that you spend yourself on it from 2016 to 2020.http://www.ageuk.org.uk/home-and-care/advice-for-carers/are-you-a-carer/Coun

Philippa Bond ● 4054d

You must be delighted that the council spent lots of money putting "CTON" on the London Overground bridge over the Uxbridge Road, and replaced the stolen "A".

Christopher Bell ● 4054d