Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable elderly and disabled people who need assistance with day-to-day tasks will receive no help towards the cost of their care, it has emerged.
A group of charities says at least 340,000 people who need home helps for vital jobs such as dressing, washing and cooking will get no support from the Coalition’s reforms to long-term care.
The Care and Support Alliance said that the eligibility criteria for the system are so tight the only ones getting support will be those deemed at risk of ‘abuse or neglect’, or so decrepit that they are just one step away from hospital.
It is absolutely disgusting that our elderly, disabled and vulnerable are being treated this way. The majority of whom have paid taxes for the majority of their life.
I have seen the neglect of these people first hand so I know it is happening.
This government are too quick to hand out money to other countries without giving a thought to how our vulnerable and elderly are coping without any help from them. Priorities need reassessing me reckons!!
Sorry to rant but fed up with keeping quiet about this sort of stuff.
I have also seen it first hand Shazzie, there are no words to describe it,disgusting doesnt even come close,you get better looked after if your a dog .
I know one lady locally who gets 10 mins a day so someone can go in and empty her comode thats disgusting what a way to be treated.We do need to shout louder.
This will be about the fair access to care criteria. Every local authority has set the criteria and some have been talking about changing it to the higher band. The council still have a duty to support their community. The people below the set band do get assistance but their needs are lower, so support may be through sign posting, enabling services, providing information. The people who are in the upper bands will get the services, whether they have to pay for them, or make a contribution towards their care will be subject to a financial assessment. as a social worker I do not think that it will alter the service because people who are unable to get washed themselves are at risk of self neglect. I think the statement ‘are at risk of abuse or neglect’ should not have been wrote in the same sentence as I think it sound that it is implying neglect due to abuse, which it is not. More services are being used. Where I live there are services in place for people to enable them to be better. For example we have a short term and reablement team. This team goes in before we apply the criteria and work with an individual to get them independent. They then do an assessment using the criteria and source their care package. The lady with the commode, maybe that is all she needs, in which case 10 minutes is adequate for a carer to go in empty the commode contents in the toilet and wipe it out and put it back. They are so pushed for work they are not able to stay and have a chat and a cup of tea. If this lady feels isolated that should be met in other ways. Social care is about promoting independence and not making people dependent. The media are going to scare a lot of people with their comments and will get a reaction. I was working when fair access to care came in and when the banding has changed and if it changes again. It has not stopped any service to those who have a need. I just wanted to reassure people. Yvette x
This will be about the fair access to care criteria. Every local authority has set the criteria and some have been talking about changing it to the higher band. The council still have a duty to support their community. The people below the set band do get assistance but their needs are lower, so support may be through sign posting, enabling services, providing information. The people who are in the upper bands will get the services, whether they have to pay for them, or make a contribution towards their care will be subject to a financial assessment. as a social worker I do not think that it will alter the service because people who are unable to get washed themselves are at risk of self neglect. I think the statement ‘are at risk of abuse or neglect’ should not have been wrote in the same sentence as I think that it is implying neglect due to abuse, which it is not. More services are being used. Where I live there are services in place for people to enable them to be better. For example we have a short term and reablement team. This team goes in before we apply the criteria and work with an individual to get them independent. They then do an assessment using the criteria and source their care package. The lady with the commode, maybe that is all she needs. In which case a carer to come in and empty and clean it out is sufficient. The carers are not their to chat and have a cup of tea, this need would be met by something else if more social input was needed. I am not saying the carers should not chat but their role is specific to the task in hand. I have been a social worker when the fair access to care (FACS) came in and it caused uproar, when the bandings have been changed also, but it has not changed the fact that people who need the care get it. I just wanted to share this. Yvette x Yvette x
thanks for your reply yvette it dose help clear things up a bit but it dose concern us that we might not get the nessissary care that we may need if we get worse with everything thats happening i think maybee the papres ar reporting the true state off afairs that is hidden from the public.
The media are not overreacting at all. In my experience of working with care staff have got to say I don’t think the staff are to blame as the cuts have forced the many good care staff into a corner. They cannot cope with the amount of care assistants leaving and not being replaced. I have seen the desperation of both care staff and the needy people who need their care.
One elderly lady in my street has no family and the only person she sees is a care assistant who goes in twice a day.
She constantly leaves her front door wide open any time of the day or night so I would say she is definitely at risk of abuse. It will only take someone who is up to no good to see that she regularly keeps her door open to cause her problems. When I see her care assistant next I will have to mention it. I woke up last night at 3.30 and her front door was wide open so I had to pop along and pull it to. Really worrying.
I do believe that there will be changes but for those who need support it will be there. How would the local authority manage with loads of people being put at risk due to their actual care needs not being met? It would be neglectful. When the criteria moved up last time we saw care agencies who would have historically re heat meals or prepare the main meal for someone now not able to do so. This did not mean that people went without food, it meant that the service went out to other agencies such as meals on wheels and frozen meal providers and micro providers such as local cafe, church groups. This meant that support was better directed to people who were not able to eat unsupervised, needed repositioning to ensure they were not at risk of aspiration, or would forget to eat due to their dementia for example. The local authority used to do a warden service and check calls to all who asked but this has changed to promoting the pendent alarm so that people have someone on call 24 hours per day rather than a time scale of 15 minutes when someone was there. Change is going to happen but for the people who need it, support will be there. It would be neglectful of any local authority if it was not. One of the goals of local authority is to keep people out of care homes and manage their support in the community. Local authorities do not have the capacity to put everybody into a care home setting and without managing Peoples care needs this is what would happen. Community resources are now about promoting independence and reablement. it’s about giving people choices and access to information so that they can purchase what they want. People may not get what they want, ie a tea and chat with the carer in the morning, but they will get what they need ie to be washed and dressed and support with breakfast for example. Yvette x
Snazzie. It sounds like that lady may need further assessment by social care. No amount of carers going in to that lady will prevent her leaving the door open however some sort of information technology/telecare, could support her to remain safe in the community. Yvette x
I had a word with the lovely carer at 4.30 today. I explained about the door and she was really sweet and said that they were aware of her dementia causing her to act in risky way and would make a note of what I said about her leaving the door open.
She said that the lady was being assessed daily and they were building up a care plan/risk assessment. If she proves to be too much of a risk to herself then they will consider residential care. Poor lady. Like you say no matter how many times the carers go in she will still be leaving he door open from time to time and goodness knows what else happens inside the house.
Thanks for thinking of her. I will keep my eye on her anyway.