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 Candy on
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Things have not changed for the better then since I dealt with the council over a neighbour with dementia years ago. I got exactly the same answer when I said that ringing my neighbour who said he was fine, was not good enough. In the end social services became exasperated with me and suggested that it would be much better if I ignored my neighbour. If I had done as they suggested then he would have frozen to death in our local cemetery. Even after this terrible treatment, they still sent him home to a house that had become a dangerous structure. The house was in such a bad state that 'meals on wheels' refused to deliver meals to him. It was all resolved when my eighty year old other neighbour, stood outside his house and refused to move until something was done. The whole episode was scary. Sadly the home he was put in was pretty bleak and he has now died. And all this happened long before the recent cuts to the councils budget
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Permalink Reply by jp quethiock on
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Candy, yes what is scary is that the local state seems to act as an occupying power not an accountable body who answer to we who live here. They barge in, bark orders and leave having ensured they trample on long established friendships and scare the community they are meant to serve. The social services staff are secretive to the point of paranoia. How they think they can run our friend's life by antagonising her friends and community is beyond me.
At least on the positive side I can report that David Lammy MP met with Barbara's friends and was horrified by the "care" given by the Council. He informed the Council and the Care Quality Commission, (the government body that supposedly oversees the good works of our local social services staff) of his concerns. He even responded to our ladies' distressed calls about Barbara's locks being changed and made his shock known and advocated on behalf of Barbara that she has the right to have her friends hold her house keys. He did this by contacting the Council Cabinet member in charge of Adult services.
Thank goodness he's stirring up the hornets' nest because the hornets ( the Council) are ignoring us locals. That is about the only pressure the community here can put on an unresponsive social services short of maybe the street engaging lawyers to protect her rights. That would be doubtless prohibitively expensive but if anyone out there would like to suggest setting up a fighting fund our local church would I think be happy to administer such. Over a thousand people seem to have been reading this thread so if each put in a pound we might even start something.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Zena Brabazon and I pledge £25 to the fighting fund. Please let us know where to send the money.
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Thank you so much Alan and Zena. I had almost suggested a fighting fund as a rhetorical device but if the kindness of Haringey residents is of your standard perhaps we may just get somewhere. My partner will add to your offer so we have our first £100. Many other neighbours have also pledged to put what they can towards such a fund because we have no faith in the council protecting Barbara's best interest. We are still talking to our local church contact about how to organise a fund that can be secure. Once set in stone we will come back to you. Thank you again.
An update for all. Barbara's old friend A is absolutely upset and angered by Haringey's latest response. A's father had fought against Franco and then lived under his rule so she grew up keenly aware of how the state can be misused to harm the people. The council leader,Claire Kober, needs to know this older lady's history means she will not tolerate her or anyone trying to trample on Barbara's right to her friends or attempt to ride rough shod over them.
Claire Kober has written to David Lammy MP saying that Barbara's locks were changed "as standard practice" because her friends A and B had stopped caring for her. What a bureaucratic lie. They are in their 70's and they couldn't continue trying to give such intensive daily personal care and didn't want to collude with the neglectful care given by Haringey. They had not stopped being her friends or caring about her. There remains no legal justification for changing the locks unless Haringey believe A and B are a danger to her belongings and Barbara can't see this. This is denying Barbara her friendships which are akin to family and insulting to her dear friends who have come and gone in her home for over thirty years.
Claire Kober also said a section 42 enquiry under the Care Act is underway. That means that the council suspect Barbara was being abused or neglected. Perhaps Ms Kober will examine her own staff's neglect of Barbara and their abuse of her human rights by changing her locks and removing the friends' access to Barbara. Now that is rhetorical.
I keep A and B updated as to the interest and kindnesses expressed in this forum. They do appreciate feeling they are not alone. Thank you all.
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Permalink Reply by Antoinette on
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I wouldn't recommend going down that path for the very simple reason that Barbara would have to the one to instruct a solicitor and she is clearly not in a position to do that. As you and your friends have already discovered, you are not her next of kin and have no sway in decisions about her and neither would a solicitor engaged by you. It would be a complete waste of money.
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Antoinette,
I'm sorry to say but you are mistaken. Next of kin holds no legal meaning. Barbara can instruct a solicitor if she has capacity and anyone has the right to have a solicitor (who is legally an officer of the court) see Barbara to judge if she has capacity to instruct. If she has, all well and good apart from the finances. If she hasn't then the solicitor can apply to the Court of Protection to have someone appointed to run her affairs in her best interests. The issue is always cost.
Barbara has her right to family life enshrined in Article 8 of the Human Rights Declaration. You do not have to be a relation by blood or marriage or cohabitation to be regarded as family. She has no known kin and for over thirty years A and B have been her family by her election. In Barbara's will she even wrote that B is "the only person I can truly trust". By changing her locks and denying A and B keys Haringey have trampled over the Article 8 rights and could be taken to the High Court for judicial review and damages awarded. Another family did take Haringey to the High Court for such an infringement a few years back. The reported costs were astronomical so unless we have a friendly millionaire out there we are unlikely to be able to have a ruling on Haringey's breach of Barbara's rights. But we could get a solicitor to decide on Barbara's capacity and we might get her case to the lower Court of Protection. It all depends, in this shiny new world, on money. Please pledge some. If it isn't used for her legal fees you'll get it back.
Regards,
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My point was if Barbara has dementia does she have capacity to engage a solicitor. And what's to stop Barbara giving her friends keys again. They can't deny her keys to her own home (that would effectively be imprisonment ), and she can give keys to whoever she pleases. Apart from anything, legal wheels turn very slowly. It could take years to conclude a legal challenge; and time is not on Barbara's side. I would happily pledge some cash to help Barbara direct but if a Section 42 investigation is under way you should wait at least until that is concluded.
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Can I also suggest that Barbara submits a data subject access request under the Data Protection Act to be provided with a copy of her Adult Services file. That will cost £10 and as a certified Data Protection professional I will gladly rip apart any half-arsed response from the Council. The form is on the Haringey website. If you would like me to help complete the form or give advice on what she should ask for I'm happy to do that too. She is entitled to ask for email communications, which is where you are likely to find the interesting stuff, but it's important to not be too wide-ranging or else they might claim the "disproportionate effort" exemption. This would be the first thing a solicitor would do but obviously costs considerably less if she does it herself.
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Absolutely outrageous behaviour by Haringey today. There is no legality or care in what they have stooped to and they call it social work. Claire Kober should be ashamed for what she presides over. Maybe it's just "standard practice" in Haringey. I was so shocked by what I was told tonight that I couldn't register how this could happen in the UK.
Today, Barbara's friends went to see her in hospital and from the shifty behaviour of staff were aware something was afoot. They pressed the nursing staff to tell them what was happening. Barbara, they said, is moving to a home tomorrow and you are not to be given any details of this. Even when Barbara asked for them to tell her and her friends, they refused to tell her. Barbara cried in fear of losing her friends. Her friends cuddled her and said they will never abandon her.
She may have dementia but she is a human being who is scared and distressed and most precious to her are her close friends. Her memory may be going but they remain her source of security.
The friends demanded to know on what grounds could Barbara and they not be told. The staff put a call in to Haringey social services who said they will not speak with Barbara's friends (including the one friend who Barbara always registers as a next of kin) nor must the hospital tell them anything.
So tomorrow Haringey will shift her off to who knows where and her only friends (family to her) will be kept in the dark.
They will not be able to see her and Barbara will have had all her long established community connections severed. That's how Haringey treat you if you are 81 and with dementia and your friends complain about the poor care you are given. Shame on Haringey council and shame on the NHS for colluding in such unlawful behaviour.
This is kidnapping among all the other wrongs it represents. So much for all the celebration about 800 years of Magna Carta. It doesn't exist in Haringey. Shame on all those who run and operate this failed state of ours. Shame, shame, shame.
We are calling on our MP to stand up for this poor woman's human rights and dignity. If you read this please call on him too to raise the matter with the Official Solicitor. He has helped and pushed for Barbara’s rights and we ask now that he help her more. The only hope for Barbara is David Lammy MP, the media and if we can find her, a solicitor to take instructions.
The last words to Barbara. When told by her friends that she is being moved she begged them to visit her. When told they now had no access to her home she became very upset. She asked them to somehow get her nightie from her home. She asked that the other neighbour promise to keep an eye on her home to ensure it's safe. How are any of these things possible Haringey?
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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YESTERDAY, the Ham & High Broadway featured this as their cover story (click to enlarge).
Underneath, I've attached a downloadable PDF of the front page and page five.
This is shocking.
C D Carter
Haringey Councillor
Liberal Democrat Party - Attachments:
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To all those who have followed this thread and expressed their concern and support for our Barbara I want to say a heartfelt thank you.
I imagine it is the pressure of people like our MP David Lammy, the media coverage, the legal advice and all us ordinary people who know an injustice by our Council and want to put it right. Like turning a lumbering oil tanker around it takes time and pressure but it can be done.
Haringey have now let the neighbours know where Barbara is. She is temporarily safe in a nursing care home and Haringey are now actively considering returning her home with live in care overnight. None of this I think would have been possible without the tremendous support shown to Barbara. Of course this is not the end of the road and who knows where promises of good intentions will go but Barbara has her friends and neighbours back in her life. The staff at the nursing care home asked the neighbours to please bring in clothing and toiletries etc from the home for who else has Barbara got? They had to say that was not possible for Haringey have locked us out. If only their social workers had thought a little beyond their "standard practice" and utilised instead good practice for the benefit of our older residents.
It is a little sad to think that Barbara will never realise the support shown to her for she would have been thrilled that people care, so I will thank you on her behalf.
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MANY thanks for the update and all your good work JPQ.
It is at once sad that it should take all this (including the power of BBC London News) to get Barbara the help she needs but also uplifting, that so many citizens have rallied round her.
I recently thanked Mr Lammy in person for the good work I know he has done to get action on this case.
I hope that the Council will now either restore the locks they caused to be replaced or provide copies of the new keys to Barbara's long time, trusted friends. In any event, they cannot go on looking after her indefinitely.
The money that Haringey Council spent on the locksmith can surely have been spent for the sole purpose, of shutting out her friends: and whistleblowers.
Is it any wonder that our Council finds it difficult to recruit social workers to this Borough?
This matter is not over and many eyes will be watching the next moves of LBH.
CDC
Haringey Councillor
Liberal Democrat Party
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