Viewing 24 posts - 1 through 24 (of 24 total)
  • I am so angry …
  • cinnamon_girl
    Full Member

    I have an elderly mother and am dealing with Adult Services within her local Council to arrange some personal care (that she will pay for) as she is struggling on her own. This was requested over 6 weeks ago.

    Just got off the phone and they can’t give me a date of when this is likely to happen. Have explained that her health is deteriorating, she will soon be having some investigative work carried out, and we’re concerned.

    I told them that this really isn’t good enough to which they agreed and blamed redundancies.

    Sorry, just feeling upset and need to work out what to do next. 🙁

    molgrips
    Free Member

    It is terrible being told ‘no’ by officals when you’re in real need. Sorry to hear it 🙁 No idea how to help otherwise though.

    kimbers
    Full Member

    sounds terrible, have you tried her mp, local paper

    kick up a fuss, im guessing that if theres been cuts then theres not much can be done

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    philconsequence
    Free Member

    if she’s paying for it herself then why not get in contact with local nursing/care agencies? they often provide domiciliary care for the local councils 🙂 most would take private referrals

    project
    Free Member

    Been there and redundancies have nothing to do with the problem its poor mis maagement, and wasting cash, you can get private carers to look after mum, but they will possibly charge more, but be more efficent as if they dont do the job properley, they dont get clients refered to them.

    Also whoever you get try to ensure they actually attend the hours they say , no bunking off early etc, or arriving late, if so deductmoneies off them, and put it in writing.

    Best wishes ffor the future.

    johnners
    Free Member

    redundancies have nothing to do with the problem its poor mis maagement, and wasting cash

    Well, you do seem to know a lot about cg’s mother’s LA.

    cinnamon_girl
    Full Member

    Thanks for the replies chaps, just trying to calm down.

    I’ve answered all their questions, explained her ongoing health issues and how it impacts upon her life. But it doesn’t appear that face-to-face assessments are done any more, the onus is on the user to say how much help they need.

    For example, she could request help every day then it would be free. Perhaps this may get a quicker response?

    If I investigate outside agencies, how do I know that the necessary checks on staff have been done?

    project
    Free Member

    management allowed for the staff to be made redundant, without any plan for future demands for the service users and families concerned.

    project
    Free Member

    If I investigate outside agencies, how do I know that the necessary checks on staff have been done?

    CG, if youre in wales its the CSIW, that are responsible for checking all care homes and care staffing agencies, and in england its the care quality commission, all staff must be CRB checked, both agencies also check the finances of comapnies and them being fit for purpose or some such words.

    philconsequence
    Free Member

    you could ask the council if they use any agencies that you could get in contact with directly? the council should’ve ensured the agency supplies aptly trained staff that have passed CRB checks and know how to keep unruly old folk in line should they try to change the TV channel or protest at being given the wrong meds.

    philconsequence
    Free Member

    oh and as project says, any agency providing domiciliary care will be registered with the CQC 🙂

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    management allowed for the staff to be made redundant, without any plan for future demands for the service users and families concerned.

    Hypothesisng here but I’m guessing their biggest expenditure is staff, so if you’re told to cut your budget by X% how do you do that without getting rid of X% of the staff?

    project
    Free Member

    Finally for now, you can download reports off the CQC, website of what they found good or bad in each care provider.

    project
    Free Member

    thisisnotaspoon – Member

    management allowed for the staff to be made redundant, without any plan for future demands for the service users and families concerned.

    Hypothesisng here but I’m guessing their biggest expenditure is staff, so if you’re told to cut your budget by X% how do you do that without getting rid of X% of the staff?

    BUT YOU STILL HAVE TO PROVIDE THE SAME SERVICES OR PRIVATISE THEM OR TUPE THEM.

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    BUT YOU STILL HAVE TO PROVIDE THE SAME SERVICES OR PRIVATISE THEM OR TUPE THEM.

    Agree entirely, but there’s a difference between “have to” and it being economicaly possible. If I had a budget of say £5million, and needed 100 nurses at £50k a year each, then that’s fine. Cut the budget to £4million and there’s 20 people that need nurses that can’t have one.

    racefaceec90
    Full Member

    i hope you find some personal care for your mother soon cinnamon girl.sorry that i have nothing constructive to add.

    Klunk
    Free Member

    I asked my wife, who has a lot of experience, what your best options are…

    All I can suggest is he rings his local social services and asks them for a list of preferred providers, or the name of the company they use for funded clients so he can ring them to see if they do private care, apart from that it is a case of ringing round, getting quotes and having meetings with companies, it is always a good idea to go online and look at any prospective companies inspection reports from CQC all companies have them and they are always available online,

    thejesmonddingo
    Full Member

    My wife works for Rapid Response,a branch of the District Nursing Service here.They do emergency assessments and arrange care input.She advises contacting your mum’s GP to see if such an organization exists in your mum’s area,and explaining your concerns and asking if she can be referred.The worst he/she can do is say no.

    Rockape63
    Free Member

    Its something that will come to most of us at some stage…..inevitable I’m afraid. Currently my Mum is looking after my Dad who has bad dementia which has worsened, so now she is really struggling. She gets a person in for 3hrs a week, which she pays for and the rest of the time its all down to her.

    Clearly the situation will only get worse and at some point I’ll only have one Parent and who knows what state they will be in? It would be nice to think you could make a phone call and the local authority rushed round and made it all go away, but it aint going to happen.

    What with trying to keep a business running and all the other stuff life entails, its not a situation I’m happy about either. Tough times on many levels.

    cinnamon_girl
    Full Member

    Thanks for all the very helpful replies, just working my way through. 🙂

    Rockape63 – your mum should be able to get more help than that. My father had dementia and received help with personal care every day cos he just didn’t know how to shower, dress etc. It’s an awful disease, so distressing and cruel. Eventually he had to go into a nursing home and received excellent care from kindly staff.

    NJA
    Full Member

    As far as I know, if you ask your local authority for a Section 47 Care assessment they are obliged to carry this out.

    more info here http://www.payingforcare.co.uk/care-needs-assessment

    not my site but seems to have reasonable information.

    project
    Free Member

    BUT YOU STILL HAVE TO PROVIDE THE SAME SERVICES OR PRIVATISE THEM OR TUPE THEM.

    Agree entirely, but there’s a difference between “have to” and it being economicaly possible. If I had a budget of say £5million, and needed 100 nurses at £50k a year each, then that’s fine. Cut the budget to £4million and there’s 20 people that need nurses that can’t have one.

    Councils dont provide nurses they provide care workers, like i said if they havent been privatised.

    CG, you should ask the council to do an assesment,as above and put it in writing, also demand they send a written reply if they refuse, and check on their website, lots of useful info, ones answering the phones seem to ignore.

    palliative.stare
    Free Member

    ‘ management allowed for the staff to be made redundant, without any plan for future demands for the service users and families concerned.’

    My council made very solid plans; they raised the thresholds at which people receive care and made the old 28 day target for assessment an aspiration rather than a target.

    We are just waiting for the public’s expectations to fall into line.

    cinnamon_girl
    Full Member

    Just a little update …

    Adult Services will be visiting my mother tomorrow so we’re now up to 7 weeks with no sign of actual help.

    There seems to be no joined-up thinking with locum GPs as they’re not actioning what they said they would. I guess the days of continuity of care with your usual GP being on-call have gone for good.

    Thanks for replies anyway, some interesting stuff there.

Viewing 24 posts - 1 through 24 (of 24 total)

The topic ‘I am so angry …’ is closed to new replies.