beware of social workers

[ancient&modern]

anyone else read the report today of how essex social workers illegally seized and imprisoned a man in a care home and then charged him for doing so. this is going on all over the country, esp where they know the person owns their home. they act with impunity, it is outrageous; this is the year 800 after magna carta. when are we going to stand up for vulnerable peoples rights, we need to do it en masse, and before we are emotionally disabled form doing so by being caught up in their net personally.

i know whereof i speak.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ted-beloved-cat-Fluffy-locked-dementia-unit-a

 

[jeany123]

I do think this is rare and most social workers are doing their best, a lot are good at it, I think beware of social workers as a title is a bit over the top,

 

[marionq]

Well the Daily Mail makes a living from being over the top on practically everything!

 

[Katrine]

Although I cannot disagree that SWs acted wrongly, I wouldn't expect any newspaper to be able to give a totally unbiased factual account, and I certainly don't trust the DM in that regard!
Here is the link to the full case report, Essex County Council v RF & Ors (Deprivation of Liberty and damage) [2015] EWCOP 1 (07 January 2015) http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCOP/2015/1.html

The situation was complex. This man lacked mental capacity in most regards and was at risk at home. On the day he was removed from home he answered the door with nothing on his nether regions. What went wrong was SS deciding he HAD to be in residential care, and ignoring the input from his friends and family. It was eventually deemed that it was in the best interests of this man that he should live in his own home with a more appropriate care package.

The situation was further complicated by the desire of this man's close friends and fellow church members to get him home whereas it would appear that the man's relatives thought he would be better in care. You can imagine that family tends to trump friends, and therefore this might have given SS a further feeling that they were justified. There was also some issue about SS having suspicions of potential financial abuse, so we don't really know the full story even from reading the case report.

Not excusing what happened, just saying....

And the poor old chap being separated from Fluffy the cat - what a gift to the media. Sorry to be cynical, but that's why this will go round the world on the wires, it's the cat that makes the story from a journalist's POV.

 

[canary]

Apparently this gentleman was 90yrs old, had dementia and lived alone, but i dont know all the facts.

My experience of SS is that it is nigh on impossible to get them to agree to someone going into residential care if that person doesnt want to go. I was tearing my hair out trying to get some support for mum, but SS just kept crossing her off their books as she kept telling them she was fine.
After she ended up in hospital, she was then moved to a dementia unit (where she still is) and I must say that the individual Social Worker who she was then assigned to has been extremely helpful.

I must also add that mum lives in Essex too.

 

[Lindy50]

Thanks for your post Katrine. I couldn't agree more.

We don't know the full facts, but I think it may be significant that friends did initially describe the man as 'vulnerable and generous'. The whole thing seems to have been very badly handled, however, to have got to this point.

I don't think we should beware of social workers, any more than doctors or other professionals

Lindy xx

 

[Carabosse]

Many ss don't listen to what the person wants or the relatives if they are acting on behalf of the person, I know this first hand from my encounter with ss. They have their own agenda and try and use the law to back up their arguments as most people have no idea about the law and are scared of what might happen, they should not have the powers they have or at the very least there should be a second or third person approval needed before anything like what happened in the article can occur.
It does make me scared of how things will be in the future if I ever need help to stay at home, will the ss come and say I don't know what I'm doing or I have lost capacity when I haven't, who is going to fight in my corner like I did for mum?

 

[Witzend]

Must say I would always take anything in the DM with a pinch of salt - it is not exactly unknown for journalists to leave out relevant facts, or emphasise others unduly, in order to angle the story the way they want.

After all I've read on here I am very glad we never had to involve SWs. Having said that, though, I do have some sympathy - I think it's often a case of damned if they do, and damned if they don't. What if they'd left the old chap at home, and he'd wandered out at night and got lost, or run over, or died of hypothermia? Or left the gas on unlit, or any number of other things? By a certain stage, as so many on here are aware, carers even 4 times a day is not enough.
I could just see the DM getting equally outraged over 'social services' neglect'.

 

[lexy]

deleted

 

[WILLIAMR]

anyone else read the report today of how essex social workers illegally seized and imprisoned a man in a care home and then charged him for doing so. this is going on all over the country, esp where they know the person owns their home. they act with impunity, it is outrageous; this is the year 800 after magna carta. when are we going to stand up for vulnerable peoples rights, we need to do it en masse, and before we are emotionally disabled form doing so by being caught up in their net personally.

i know whereof i speak.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ted-beloved-cat-Fluffy-locked-dementia-unit-a

I don't know if he was living in a council or private property but some of the properties about 2 miles from us are worth £2,000,000+.
I have been advised some of them had increased £300,000 in value in 18 months.
If the property had been sold by the council it may be liable for the £300,000 plus the fees for the home plus compensation for wrong deprivation of liberty.

William