BETRAYAL OF FAMILY CARERS WHO LOOK AFTER THE ELDERLY

 

Carers UK chief executive Helena Herklots rapped failings

Monday September 17,2012

By Sarah O’Grady

FAMILY carers who bear the brunt of failures in the home care service are at risk of illness and poverty, a devastating report reveals today.

It shows that as standards decline pensioners cared for in their own homes are being left all day to cope without food or drink.

The study also warns that serious failings in the care of the elderly is leaving vulnerable people subject to cruel or incompetent treatment.

 

The consumer watchdog Which? asked 40 family carers to keep a diary of their experience and that of their cared-for relative.

One daughter’s diary told of her mother having her face washed with a flannel with faeces on it and being dressed in yesterday’s soiled clothes.

Other relatives spoke of untrained staff using lifting equipment, mix-ups with medication and alarm pendants being left out of reach.

Better quality and better funded services that families can have confidence in must be a priority for the Government as it takes forward its reforms to care and support services.

The diaries also reveal the toll on family carers who said that their own health and wellbeing was suffering as a result, leaving them impoverished and stressed.

One said she was “struggling to make ends meet” and another wondered how much longer she could carry on “with this stress of caring”.

Carers UK chief executive Helena Herklots said: “These powerful personal stories highlight how the chronic underfunding of social care services too often leaves families without the vital help they need, or struggling with poor quality or unreliable services.

“Better quality and better funded services that families can have confidence in must be a priority for the Government as it takes forward its reforms to care and support services.

“Families shouldn’t have to keep picking up the pieces of a failing care system.”

On average, for every five hours of paid for home care, a family carer spent one hour sorting things out.

Poor quality care also meant that one third of family carers asked agencies not to send a particular worker back as they were not up to the job.

Common complaints throughout the study research included missed visits, inconsistency and duration of care.

Four in 10 reported at least one missed visit in the last six months while 28 per cent were unhappy with the length of care visits and 52 per cent had to repeat information unnecessarily to different people.

 

Half of family carers surveyed had concerns or complaints about their care provision, but those who complained to care agencies were largely unsatisfied, with just 23 per cent saying efforts had been made to prevent a problem repeating.

Richard Lloyd, executive director at Which?, said: “Our research shows vulnerable people left scared, hungry and sometimes put at risk, and when things go wrong, it is family carers that bear the brunt, giving up their hopes and plans, even sacrificing their own health.

“Family carers shouldn’t have to struggle alone. The Government has promised a high standard of care and support. Those words must now be turned into urgent action for the families affected by a system that is failing them today.”

Many hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled people have faced cuts to their support and assistance this year as councils struggle to find new savings of £1billion from social care budgets.

Some families are stepping in to help as much as they can but the report found that much of family carers’ stress stems from not knowing their rights, a lack of advice as they begin to care and an absence of support.