Ed Balls Crisis in Care.

People do all recieved the same care, relative to the home, of course.
If someone wants to use the toilet, it isn't limited if they aren't self funded.
The carers would have no idea, anyway.

Germanshepherdsmum

Karaoke - no, please!!!

Not with me singing! ???

Bijou

I did report it but it is still the same. Probably because the private rooms are more profitable than the private ones.

Sorry I got your name wrong - it was a typo Bijou.
Yes, private -v- public funding but all should receive the same level of decent care.

Since the introduction of the system whereby care would be provided by external agencies and not NHS there has never been consideration given to the pay of those care workers. The system was and still is geared to profit. Why would private companies take on the roll if they hadn't thought there would be profit in it Didn't see the Ed Balls programme but no matter what it would take an awful lot to convince me the system is human being centred and not profit. No one who needs looking after should have to pay for it and that applies to all countried of GB.

Redl care of the elderly was the responsibility of the state until the 1980s. The Thatcher government produced a white paper, "Growing older" and a consultative document "Care in the Community" which changed the focus from hospital to community care. The burden of paying for this care fell onto local authorities and this is when private residential nursing homes moved in. I remember all of this as I was a ward sister on a care of the elderly unit in an NHS hospital. It was a great place to work and care for patients who had a wide range of conditions from stroke to dementia, all cared for by qualified nurses and highly motivated and reasonably well paid nursing assistants. It is now a private nursing home.
The crisis that is happening now will only be resolved, in my opinion, by bringing those care homes back under the umbrella of the NHS, and where quality of care not profit margins are the prevailing factor in looking after our elderly population.

Some people like it, though.

Karaoke - no, please!!!

I did report it but it is still the same. Probably because the private rooms are more profitable than the private ones.

No-one deserves to go to the kind of place Bujou had to endure but cafés, bars, a hairdressing salon are not absolutely necessary. I know two lovely hairdressers who go into care homes to do residents' hair. A gym area, a cinema area?
French doors - my relative would be escaping, sorry.

It sounds like a luxury hotel but more like a care home than a nursing home for those who require a high level of care.

I was impressed by the staff shown in Ed's documentary but didn't think the building itself was really suitable.

It can be done - but it costs.

Yes, it can, if someone has the funds. I doubt that the majority do have that much money, though.

Sorry, don't mean to sound grumpy, Luckygirl because I know how hard it was for you at the time and the problems you had. My relative is in a lovely care home but the cost is very high, her funds will not last for ever and if she needs a higher level of care it will cost thousands extra per week or else she will have to move elsewhere, even more unsettling for someone with dementia .

The nursing home that my OH was in was newly designed and absolutely state of the art.

A beautiful room, carpeted, with a bed that did not look at all like an institutional bed. En suite wet room with all the necessary equipment. No problems getting hoists etc. over the carpet. French doors out onto a lovey garden. A large cafe area in the entrance hall where residents could make a cup of whatever and eat freshly made cakes, and also the visitors. A bar - they would order in people's favourite tipple. Hairdressing room, library, lounges - small ones that looked like your lounge at home with sofas around the fire. A gym area, a cinema area. Full time activity organisers, including at the weekend. And so on. And it cost-a-load, as you would expect - but nothing less would do and I was prepared to turn my life upside down for him to be there. I wept at some of the other places I looked round.

It can be done - but it costs.

I think we need to be very careful about putting our values onto others, particularly when they are unable to convey their own views succinctly. - so we present them with crap. No-one deserves that.

I was training as a social worker in the early 80s and have never forgotten the tutor who said that the rise in the elderly population was a ticking time bomb that no government wanted to address. It's been clearly on the horizon at least that long. Ed Balls wasn't my favourite person.... but I watched the programme and have revised my opinion. He did a very good job and I'm looking forward to the next episode.

Hopefully that is all standard. (Fingers crossed)
It certainly has been in the last few places I've worked.

It's a huge improvement on how things were years ago.

Bijou that sounds terrible and should reported the CQC, perhaps by your GP.
A relative of mine was sent to a home for a period of convalescence and was the only patient without dementia - she found it frightening as another resident was very aggressive towards her, coming into her room and trying to attack her. She didn't even get her own clothes to wear and went home without them.

They don't need to push hoists around, the are sort of built in and electric, not a great explanation. The bed looks like a normal bed but it is also electric, can be raised for care tasks, the back can be raised to help her sit up, base can be raised if her feet need to be raised The en suite is plenty big enough for the carer to go in, it is only a loo and sink, no shower or bath as they are considered a H&S risk if she tried to use them alone.

Alot of the modern equipment doesn't need to look like a hospital.

For me, it is more dignified for a home to have the proper equipment and furnishings in order for maintaining dignity.
Hoists don't work well on plush carpets, and en suites can get crowded when the carer needs to get in there to assist. (Without going into too much detail)

MissAdventure

It's also important to know that a wonderfully decorated place is not an indication of good care, necessarily.
Some of the most terrible places I worked in were tastefully decorated.

Yes atmosphere rather than decoration.

I worked in admin in a group of care homes, the entertainment is different if you know the people, for us at home it is some strange man not doing something very well, for people who know him it will be funny. At the homes where I worked karaoke was a favourite activity, residents were divided into the ones who liked to perform and the ones who loved to laugh at the staff.

Obviously people weren't forced to attend, if you wanted to watch TV in your room that was fine too.

It's also important to know that a wonderfully decorated place is not an indication of good care, necessarily.
Some of the most terrible places I worked in were tastefully decorated.

Some people will enjoy that kind of entertainment though, either because they always have, or because their mindset has changed and it is as much as they can cope with.

I think we need to be very careful about putting our values onto others, particularly when they are unable to convey their own views succinctly.

I don't agree that the old council homes were better. My grandfather was in one and it was grim, I mean the staff seemed OK but it was very institutional with polished lino floors, no such thing as an en suite, no personal furniture in rooms, well they were shared anyway.

I have an elderly relative in one now, beautiful carpeted room, nice bed that doesn't look like a metal hospital bed, beautiful en suite, her own things round her e.g. TV, radio, chair, curtains and bedding.

I don't get the no career progression, you get senior carers and deputy managers and managers. They were presumably carers at first.

As most Gransnetters know I am 98. In spite of mobility problem because of painful arthritic knees I manage with a lovely lady who comes in for an hour or so Daily to clean and wash up etc. It is only the past few days that she has had also to stand by whilst I shower just in case I should fall
Four years ago I had anal cancer cured by radiotheraphy which caused damage to the base of my spine and I was hospitalised. One evening when I was having my dinner I was suddenly taken to a care home. It was a dingy room with just an unmade bed with a grubby screwed up bottom sheet which didn’t cover the plastic mattress and an uncomfortable shabby easy chair. No TV. Fortunately i had my I pad and was able to message my help 26 miles away.
Although there was a bathroom I could not reach it because of the intense pain in my spine making walking difficult.
I should have had physiotherapy but had none.
At one time I was in intense pain so rang the bell for help. I could hear other bells ringing. Over half an hour later a helpcame and asked in gruff voice What do you want. She told me that I would have to wait two hours until the trolley came round.
On two occasions I was not helped to shower and was in my nightdress all day.
This room was on the top floor which was for NHS patients. The paying patients were having barbecues and amusements. It was worse than two weeks in prison.

Although I reported this nothing has been changed.
I spoke to my GP and she said she had also heard other complaints about the place.
I hope I will die in my sleep otherwise will take an overdose.

I think he was the Clinical Lead, fluttERBY123, doing his best and going above and beyond as no outside entertainment was allowed into care homes for a long time due to Covid restrictions. - this really pulls my chain.

I have worked with people with dementia and feel so strongly that we owe them the best quality of everything - and that includes music and entertainment.

What he was doing was pure crap - a good Elvis impersonator would have been fine, but not his pathetic efforts. Better to play the real thing or a video of Elvis. It was utterly grim and the residents deserve better. It is an insult to them.

Would we want to be subjected to this rubbish? .... absolutely not. Why - because they are weak and helpless and a captive audience - should we inflict such nonsense on them?

OK - off my hobby horse now!

Such a shame Ed Balls didn’t do something about this when he was in government( his Mum was probably OK then and not needing care). I’ve always called it the “ couldn’t care-less” system. A friend who worked in a “care” home a few years ago was horrified when she found out the manager was paid a bonus on the money she saved on spending on the residents - especially the self-funders (which is where the profits are made as Councils pay the barest minimum)
As an aside - I was telling him indoors about a new clinic in Switzerland and that it would be easy to get to, a simple flight from our local airport, the flight (then) costing about £50. His response was to ask if that was the cost of a return flight…Needless to say we have always been on different wavelengths. My idea has always been to set up the “Thelma and Louise Holidays” - a raucous road trip abroad ending in Switzerland. Been a member of Dignity in Dying for years and get regular emails from Exit International. And on that happy note…

trisher DNR is quite controversial as some patients have agreed to this when they were at that time very ill but did have a chance of a good recovery. It was not the right thing for them and next of kin had not been consulted either to give an over-view of what the patient was like before their current illness.