Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
81 yo Haringey woman's "inadequate care"
The number of older people needing care is expected to rise by 60% in the next two decades, but some have claimed the care system in the capital is already severely stretched.
Tags for Forum Posts: adult social care
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Antoinette on
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If there is any sort of delay in getting her the chiropodist service she needs, please do let me know. The mobile service I spoke to this morning need just 48 hours notice
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I find this lack of care very distressing; particularly the urine soaked bed which is unforgiveable. But could this lady's friends not got out a pair of nail clippers?
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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I think when they are as bad as that they probably need a specialist chiropodist- the lunch clubs that died in the first wave of cuts used to provide this service for free. I suspect they won't take her to hospital for fear that she won't be discharged home again due to her dementia. Much was made in the film of her desire to remain in her own home which is wholly understandable. As friends they would have very little say over her care.
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It's just so awful. Wish I could put her in my car and take her to the chiropodist myself. I cut my own mother's toe nails for her because she can't do it herself.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Just over two years ago my Mam was in hospital after having had her left leg amputated. Her discharge care package was assessed as two, half hour visits a day, a morning get "get up" and an evening "put down". This was despite her also having such severe osteoarthritis that both hands here virtually unusable. The rest of her care was to be provided by my sister, who is blind in one eye and has partial sight in the other and poor speech and left side weakness following a stroke, and me, living almost 300 miles away. It took almost three months for me to even get agreement to fund basic adaptations to my Mam's home; a raised toilet seat, a wooden ramp at the back door. My Mam died in hospital before any of this could be signed off. There are Barbaras everywhere in this country.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Does that mean, Michael, that your mother had to spend more time in hospital than she wanted to, or needed to, had good quality home or perhaps residential care services - been available?
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Yes, far longer than she needed to. She wanted to return to her own home and the actual cost of that was less than residential care (which she desperately did not want). What made me angry during the months I tried to sort this out was that she was reduced to a financial calculation rather than someone in need. There is a whole language used to refer to older people that reinforces the image of them somehow being useless and an inconvenience - bed blocker is the one that always gets me; it seems to imply that they are being too selfish to die.
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Which is why we have to convince the Council that they should be levying the additional 2% on council tax bills to fund adult social care as announced in the autumn Spending Review statement. I want to pay this extra money. I'd pay more given the option.
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You're right of course Antoinette that much of this comes down to money. But there is also the lack of coordination between medical and social care. In my Mam's case the care she received from all of the professional involved was good but they acted as individuals rather than as a team. The case really showed up the stupidity of the internal market that good people struggle to deliver services within. Each was answerable to an individual budget holder but none of them had the power to decide on the whole package my Mam needed
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Permalink Reply by jp quethiock on
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You might all be interested in how our "Barbara" 's fate is being decided. She is safe and well at the moment as she is in hospital with an infection. Remember, she is a doubly incontinent woman with dementia. In no circumstances can she be said to have the capacity to judge her own best interests and in such case this task falls to others to decide. This Spring she will lose both of her totally committed friends as one will be moving away and the other will be elsewhere for some time. They have provided the washing and the shopping and the bill paying and the crossing the road to attend to her needs when she has been up and confused at 2am and the all round general befriending and loving care. People like me who have to work, family with needs do what we can when we can- like replacing her key safe (perhaps you thought Haringey had a repair man or woman for these tasks but no) cleaning up faeces, making sure she has something to eat when we pop round etc. but we and other neighbours will not be able to replace the daily care her two major friends have provided over the years. Their opinion and that of other neighbours is that Barbara's best interests now are that she does not return home but gets full time nursing home care. At home she does not pull her emergency alarm cord when she falls so she is at great risk. And none of us can see any care agency getting her food in (she would not even know how to pay them for it) or doing her continual washing at a launderette (no washing machine) let alone keep her warm when she forgets to turn on a fire (no central heating you see) or simply be there to chat. But because Barbara quite naturally says she wants to go home Haringey Social Services say her wishes must be respected and claim this will be in her best interest. Of course it is sad when an older person cannot return to their near life long home but returning an incapacitated woman to a lonely home without any ability to care for herself is a crime. It seems that when someone actually needs 24 hour care Haringey feels it is better they go home to fall over or mess themselves in the early hours when no-one, no-one at all from social services or their private agents will be there for them. This is doubtless in Haringey's best financial interests. As a recent correspondent here put it, old folk are now a financial drain not a person in need. Why can't the two people, who have selflessly put in the hard loving care for Barbara for so long and fear for her without their help, be allowed to judge now what's in her best interest. If Barbara were my mother I would not allow Haringey to tell me what her best interests are when clearly they do not understand her needs. As my mother did say, don't grow old. How can it be right for any Council to so misuse the words of a woman without mental capacity? Can anyone help our Barbara? Are there any Councillors reading this and if so please help Barbara, for she might be your mum, your aunty, she might be you tomorrow- let's treat our elders with a little bit of compassion and give them the care they need.
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I wouldn't put my faith in any Councillor to be able to make a difference in this situation. The only people that can affect whether Barbara goes home or not are the medics in charge at the hospital. If they say she is not able to go home the Council cannot force it on her. The problem is that many nursing homes will not accept dementia patients as they do not feel they have the resources to care for them properly. My grandmother had Alzheimers and we couldn't find her a nursing home place because of it. But there are respite care homes that should take her temporarily while they assess her mental capacity. That's what you need to lobby the doctors to get. It shouldn't be like this but it's the medical arguments that will win the day
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High emotion on our street this morning with Barbara's friends in tears. Someone from Haringey social services came and changed the locks to Barbara's privately rented home and when asked why they were thereby depriving neighbours (who've held keys for years) of access to Barbara when she is returned home ( as Haringey said they will send her home), they were told by the official that she would not discuss this but gave a name and number of her manager to call. The number was wrong but even when the right one was rung there was no answer.
Does the Council have power to come and change your locks when you're in hospital? Well, yes if they think there is a danger of loss or damage to your moveable property. It's in section 47 of the 2014 Care Act. As Barbara's home was already securely locked one has to conclude that Haringey outrageously think Barbara's long term friends and neighbours are likely to use their keys to get in and steal her things. This is the state of social work in our Borough: if you do not agree with Haringey then you are to be banished from the older person's life oh and of course then you'll never get in to see whether Barbara is still in an uncared for state.
Haringey social services are completely muddled in their thinking however. They state that Barbara has the capacity to decide to come home. If she has capacity she would have had to agree to having her locks changed and no keys given to her friends. Why would she do such a thing that would severe their contact which she would never want as she cries when her friends leave her, begging them to stay? The Council can change her locks without her permission if they think it in her best interests BUT only if they think she lacks capacity. So we must assume they believe she has capacity to decide to come home but not to decide to have her locks changed. Who are they kidding? What are they trying to hide behind their deviousness? And whatever happened to working with communities? Please don't get old in this Borough or at least get to a good lawyer and get a Lasting Power of Attorney made out to a friend or family member so they can protect you from Haringey if you get to lose the ability to make your own decisions. Poor Barbara. Haringey Council, shame on you for your actions will punish vulnerable Barbara not the neighbours with whom you are so angry for daring to bring her plight into the public domain via the BBC. God what a Borough.
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