Category Archives: family

Urgent action is needed by government to prevent things getting worse!

February 26, 2013   Carers, family, Older care

Risk of abuse leaves 70% of adults afraid of ending up in care home

  • Inspection finds 1 in 6 nursing homes don’t treat patients with dignity and respect
  • Only 41% of relatives believe loved ones enjoy a good quality of life in care

By Jenny Hope

PUBLISHED: 00:07, 26 February 2013 | UPDATED: 07:36, 26 February 20

 

Fears: Half of those surveyed said their biggest concern if a close relative goes into care is the risk of abuse. (Picture posed by model)Fears: Half of those surveyed said their biggest concern if a close relative goes into care is the risk of abuse. (Picture posed by model)

Seventy per cent of adults fear ending up in a care home amid concerns about poor treatment and abuse, a survey reveals.

It found two thirds believe not enough is being done to tackle the problem, and half say their biggest concern if a close relative goes into care is the risk of abuse.

The Alzheimer’s Society report also shows a record 80 per cent of those living in care homes have dementia or severe memory problems, compared with previous estimates of around 62 per cent.

The report, Low Expectations, reveals the pessimism of relatives and carers about the quality of life in care homes.

It found fewer than half of dementia sufferers in care homes enjoy a good quality of life, with more than a quarter of relatives saying it is ‘poor’.

The report comes after six care workers at the Winterbourne View home near Bristol were sent to prison last year for ‘cruel, callous and degrading’ abuse of disabled residents.

At the same time, inspections by the Care Quality Commission found one in six nursing homes did not treat patients with dignity and respect.

The Alzheimer’s Society report estimates that 322,000 of 400,000 care home residents have dementia or memory problems.

However, it found only 41 per cent of relatives believe their loved ones enjoy a good quality of life in care, and 28 per cent think it is poor.

Despite this, the report found three quarters of relatives would recommend their family member’s home.

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Home from Hospital new package in Bradford

February 18, 2013   Carers, family, health, Older care

Carers Resource Home from Hospital scheme expanded across Bradford district

9:00am Monday 18th February 2013 in News  By Claire Lomax, Health Reporter

Kempton Cannon with Home from Hospital project manager Sally Hinds Kempton Cannon with Home from Hospital project manager Sally Hinds

For pensioner Kempton Cannon, returning to his empty house after a spell in hospital was set to be a daunting prospect.

The 90-year-old former painter and decorator was anxious about how he would cope back home living alone.

But now, as a ground-breaking project expands across the Bradford district for the first time, a package of help and support is available to Mr Cannon and hundreds of patients like him.

Home from Hospital is an initiative designed to ease adults of all ages back into everyday life after being discharged from hospital.

It helps with everything from benefits guidance and restarting home care to making sure houses are safe, and that gas, electric and water supplies are in working order.

Patients receive a hamper of food basics and a safety and well-being checklist, plus a friendly face from volunteers involved in the project, which is co-ordinated by award-winning charity, The Carers Resource.

For Mr Cannon, of Addingham, the visits are proving a lifeline.

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More compassion and help is needed for the people who do the caring!

February 9, 2013   Carers, family, health, hospital

Cameron wants care and compassion? He’d do well to show some himself

It’s the norm now for the people who clean up after others to be unimportant, poorly paid and denied rights. That’s got to change

Gloria Foster death

Gloria Foster, pictured here on her wedding day, who died earlier this month after lying alone for nine days due to care agency failure. It’s about cultural values versus economic ones, writes Deborah Orr

It may have been the “apparently high mortality rates in patients admitted as emergencies” that prompted the first of many investigations into Stafford Hospital. But it’s the reports of bedridden patients lying in their own urine and excrement that illustrate the depth of the “systemic failure” at the hospital. Because everybody knows that isn’t right. You need no training – medical or otherwise – no management expertise or experience, no special “vocation” or long-honed skill, to understand that you don’t do that to animals, let alone humans.

And that, in a nutshell, is the problem. Our intensely hierarchical economic system runs on specialisation – the attainment of qualifications, the accumulation of experience, the possession of skill, talent, instinct, flair, ruthlessness, the ability to manage or make money, all wrapped up in a bundle that makes an individual special and unique. So the things that all humans are expected to comprehend, and be able to turn their hand to, have no value.

I’m not just talking about the NHS. Of course, hospitals contain concentrated numbers of people who can’t get to the loo by themselves, and a lack of cleanliness can and does have sometimes fatal consequences. So the general failure to reward “menial” tasks is particularly egregious in hospitals.

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