dignity

[jimskem]

Just watched the evening news on t.v.
There was a situation in Coventry involving Social Services.
A lady of about 87 was taken from a house by two social workers, she was
in a wheelchair and had a towel over her head and face.
Social Services said this was to protect her privacy.Apparantly the lady's
daughter had removed her mother from a local care home. This was after having work done at her home to enable her to care for her mother.
The daughter allowed a camera crew inside the house in order to inspect
work builders had done in order to cope with a wheelchair.
Police accompanied the social workers, and it was reported they had a battering ram with them, but did not use it.
I am sure if the t.v. crew had not have been tipped off, there would have been no need for the towel.
I'm certain the police officers involved were very embarassed with being
involved in such a delicate operation.

 

[EVELYNNE]

I didn.t see the news tonight , but the whole situation regarding welfare of the elderly is worrying to say the least. I can , from my own experience , understand why they wanted to look after their mother at home. My own thoughts on "care homes " is prison for the elderly, mostly run by greedy doctors making money out of the defenseless.

Sorry for the rant.

 

[Turley]

I To think its discusting my mom was in a nursing home and she to was just left to sit there with no stimulation of any sort. My sisters used to go down every day and she would be sitting in the same chair looking at the same wall.
They found it very hard to leave her every day. as when they went there they hadnt washed her hair or she had the same cloths on from the day before , The excuses they got was under staffed. They got paid enough money. If my sisters could of took my mom home they would have done.(to many stairs and a handicapped boy to look after)Would they have faced the police nocking on the door.who better to look after your mom but your family.


lizzy

 

[Martyn]

You can see your care home latest reports by having a look at the governing body here.

Care Quality Commission - Directory of care services

My wife is an Activities Coordinator in a Care & Nursing Home and the staff work really hard for a minimum wage. In her particular one they take in terminal patients, stroke victims and the like. There are many shutting down because of the recession. Councils are pulling funding resulting in homes that are only half full or worse. My wifes home had a very good rating on their last assessment and yet out of 28 beds only 17 are occupied. That is a loss of £35000 per month to their income. The running costs of homes are very expensive because of the standards they have to maintain. They have had to get rid of all their temporary staff and are running on empty at the moment. As regards entertaining it can very difficult because of their limitations but my wife organises all sorts of things including musicians, singers etc. I've no doubt there are bad ones but believe me they don't get away with it.

Care for the elderly is in crisis with more care homes being closed due to the recession - Telegraph

 

[EVELYNNE]

I've just watched the news now, and trust me if the lady in question was already in a care home any dignity she had would have soon gone out the window.

There are good run care homes, in my view, the council run ones being better, but mostly run by poorly paid staff, with patients continually being sedated to make their jobs easier.

My only regret over the care of my father is that he had to spend his last 10 days of life in a care home, something I didn;t want , but had no choice in. I'm not sure if it was the sedation or the indignation of having to share his last days sleeping with strangers that killed him. When I arrived at that home that day, they had put him on a trolley in a dark back room which was full of junk. I realised then, what they thought of him. I'm glad he didn;t last long there, because I know he hated it.

 

[Martyn]

I can only go by the one home I know and it's nothing like that at all.

 

[EVELYNNE]

I can only go by the one home I know and it's nothing like that at all.

Martyn, I'm glad the home you know is like it is, with happy residents that have a community. there are places out there like that, but they should all be like that.

The elderly, although not all being able to look after themselves, still hold purpose and value to life and should be treated with the dignity they deserve.

I remember once looking at homes in our area for respite care for my father, it was awful. I remember driving away with my husband thinking I was going to have to put dad in one of these places just so we could have a holiday, which we desperately needed, but my heart didn;t want to do it, I was torn between looking after my father, and the rest my husband needed, i was distraught but I knew if Peter said he was to go to one of these places, I had to agree. We were driving back home in silence, when my husband said, "i'd rather take dad to the police station and tell them he s been shopifting cos he have better treatment in prison. We will carry on as we are". I was so relieved that I didn;t have to let my dad down at that time.

 

[Martyn]

Martyn, I'm glad the home you know is like it is, with happy residents that have a community. there are places out there like that, but they should all be like that.

The elderly, although not all being able to look after themselves, still hold purpose and value to life and should be treated with the dignity they deserve.

I remember once looking at homes in our area for respite care for my father, it was awful. I remember driving away with my husband thinking I was going to have to put dad in one of these places just so we could have a holiday, which we desperately needed, but my heart didn;t want to do it, I was torn between looking after my father, and the rest my husband needed, i was distraught but I knew if Peter said he was to go to one of these places, I had to agree. We were driving back home in silence, when my husband said, "i'd rather take dad to the police station and tell them he s been shopifting cos he have better treatment in prison. We will carry on as we are". I was so relieved that I didn;t have to let my dad down at that time.

I know what you mean. My elderly mother-in-law(90 next week) is living with us. She is no problem other than she isn't very good on her feet. My wife works 4 days a week 6 hrs per day locally, and I work from home a lot so we get by being around for her. Putting in a home did occur to us and i think it wouldn't be a bad thing as she would other company but the cost of doing that is around £2600 per month. If you are lucky you can get funding from the local council. If you have property(she doesn't) and only you are in it then it has to be sold to pay for the funding.

As you know they love to reminisce about old times, that alone can be very tiring going over and over the same things all the time. I know my wife needs a break from it all. We have tried to make the house as safe as possible for times when we aren't there but it only takes a minute for an accident to happen. She tries to do things for herself so she isn't a burden but she doesn't realise doing things increase the chance of something bad happening so that in itself can be stressful for us.

Going back to your original points, trying to entertain the elderly can be difficult or it can be easy. If all of your elderly people are of the same ability/awareness then it's easy but most of the time the mix makes it difficult. That then gives you decisions to make who do you work with the ones maybe that are fully aware but have terminal illnesses like cancer or the ones that are virtually dead to the world. As I said before she gets entertainers in such as singers leading group singing sessions maybe of old war time songs, maybe the local school children visit etc. Maybe she just has a reminiscence session where they can all interact where possible. She organises trips out but of course they cannot take everyone out so it would be the ones that are most aware so some cannot go. It's a fine balancing act to make sure everyone is stimulated.

 

[mintyk]

I worked in one the bigger "Mental Hospitals" One of those that was closed for "Care in the Community" HUH! I then worked in the community. Care,,, I did so did my collegues but caring from the few does not in anyway compensate for the greedy doing this job because they think it will be easy, for some it is. They make it easy for themselves at the expense of the weak and vunerable. A staff of 2 night time workers and maybe 8 day time staff cared for 29 elderyl, phyisically and mentally impaired ladies. One was 92 and had taken to bed care. You know not one of these ladies had a pressure sore.On the community, majority had them. Peole was not washed properly and not fed properly, I think "Care in the Community" stinks! How could a care home for four with a worker when the residents have been in hospital most of their lives.Maybe today it is different I dn't know as I have been away from work for a while now. I do wonder.

I know not everyone is the same there are some great caring workers. I do think for every one that is caring there must be a dozen that do not give a monkeys. It's just a job.





In the hospital we hade so much therapy for the residents, physio, dance, music.