Panorama tv programme

carol

Registered User
Jun 24, 2004
196
0
Surrey/Hampshire
Panorama BBC 1 10.15pm this evening

Subject: People with long-term illnesses who have had to sell their houses to pay for medical care.

Best wishes,

Carol
 

SkyHigh

Registered User
Apr 17, 2006
9
0
Notts
Hi carol

Just watched it. Sad really!

We haven't got to that stage yet, but it's not going to be long I don't think. Worst of it is, that everyone keeps talking about social services and what they offer - well how about a call back for me!


Take care,
SkyHigh
 

Norman

Registered User
Oct 9, 2003
4,348
0
Birmingham Hades
Hi Carol
I have just watched the programme.It only tells us what we already know and have seen and read before.
The mystery to me is why no one has formed a group to fight this wicked system.
Individuals have fought it why not a united front?
I don't mean an existing body like AS but a group set up and self funding by the members.
I know one answer is to use your vote at election time but that does not work.
Anybody know why a protest group has never been formed,or has it?
Norman:mad: :mad: :mad:
 

Helena

Registered User
May 24, 2006
715
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maybe because all those affected by this are too busy either recovering from the stress of caring for relatives prior to them going into care home or because they are simply too exhausted
 

connie

Registered User
Mar 7, 2004
9,519
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Frinton-on-Sea
Helena, I think you are right with your explanation.

Wish I had more energy to pursue matters on a simple level, after 24/7 caring, let alone start campaigning.
 

kazlou

Registered User
Feb 3, 2006
75
0
Surrey
I found a site where there is support for those wishing to go down the very long line of trying to get Fully Funded NHS Care

http//groups.msn.com/Freenursingcareinformation

I found the site supportive in my quest for F.F.NHS care for my father after his acute stroke.
I know soon that I will have the same path to follow for Mum as she has VD & possibly AD.
Kaz
 

kazlou

Registered User
Feb 3, 2006
75
0
Surrey
I missed this one off my last posting

WWW.************

Hope this will be of help to some of you.

Kaz
 

kazlou

Registered User
Feb 3, 2006
75
0
Surrey
Hi Norman

Yes I did eventually get funding for Dad after a long fight but unfortunatley he entered the NH end June and then was in and out of hospital and died 24th August.
Dad was granted 3 months FF NHS Care and that was only given on the account that he had caught MRSA in hospital and they told us it would be reviewed again in September when he would quite possibly lose it as he became "stable & Predictable" .

Kaz
 

Helena

Registered User
May 24, 2006
715
0
Quite an article today in the Daily Mail about the appalling state of elderly ill people being forced illegally to pay for NH care

The new consultation paper is on

www.dh.gov.uk/consultations/liveconsultations

end date for consultation is 22nd Sept

the paper is currently about 5th item down on the site


Members of the public can send their views on the paper and its proposals
to

Simon Metcalf
Dept of Health
Room 116 Wellington House
133-135 Waterloo Rod
London SE1 8UG

or by e mail to

national.continuing.care@dh.gsi.gov.uk


We need to get everyone we know to bombard them with letters and e mails and maybe the Dept of Health will meet their Waterloo !!!!!
 
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ElaineMaul

Registered User
Jan 29, 2005
333
0
64
Hi Helena,
I couldn't get the consultation link to work ....... could you try posting it again please?
Thanks
Elaine
 

Kathleen

Registered User
Mar 12, 2005
639
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69
West Sussex
Thanks Helena for the link, I have just sent my e-mail and will rally family and friends to contact them too.

I don't hold out much hope, but if enough people put their viewpoint maybe the threat of losing voters may do some good.

Kathleen
 

ElaineMaul

Registered User
Jan 29, 2005
333
0
64
Thanks Helena for updating the link. I'm just reading through it.

Perhaps I'm being a bit thick, but I still find I have trouble distinguishing the difference between 'health care' and 'social care'. If I was in, say, a traffic accident and was unconscious for a while, I would still need to be fed and the 'other end' dealt with. I would still need to be washed. Are these all deemed to be 'social care'? However, I would need someone to do them for me because the accident, the 'health issue', would prevent me doing them for myself. And, of course, if you're in hospital after an accident, I can't recall anyone being asked to 'pay', or be assessed to see if they aught to pay, for being fed, watered, washed.

So ....... someone with dementia needs to be supervised, fed, washed, etc ........ but it is the disease that has caused this need ....... so why isn't it a health issue? The need for someone else to do these things is a consequence of the disease....... a health issue ........ a health need!

Also, having started to read the consultation document, I notice that on page 7, point 9, it says:

This Framework does not apply to individuals who are detained under the Mental Health Act 1983,
and who are the responsibility of the NHS under the provisions of this Act.

How is this not a 'get out clause'? I don't mean to be flippant, but the consequences of dementia ........ the aggressiveness, mental incapacity etc .......... seem like a candidate for classification under this Act???
........ and then the NHS pays for everything????

There is obviously something missing in my line of thought......... but it makes my blood boil to think of all the many thousands of people who have paid into this country for so many years ......... and when they need help they get treated terribly.
[end rant]

Elaine
 

Helena

Registered User
May 24, 2006
715
0
"the devil is in the detail "

This government will find words to wriggle out of everything

Tony Blair in his first election speeches said "I do not want my children to live in a country where the old are stripped of their homes to pay for care "

I am way too much of a lady to say what I would call him

but Hypocrisy is a good word for how they all behave

the answer of course is to ensure our LOs are sectioned under the Mental Health Act
 

connie

Registered User
Mar 7, 2004
9,519
0
Frinton-on-Sea
Hi Elaine, good to hear from you.

This subject is a minefield. Lionel was at a very low ebb, due to medication, during the early part of this year. SS decided to find him a place in a local EMI unit to be assessed.

Assessment was that he needed to have 2 carers to attend his basic needs, ie, washing dressing toiletting, plus hoist where necessary. ALL ARE DEEMED TO BE SOCIAL NEEDS.

Hence, Lionel is still at home, carers in for one and a half hours each morning, half hour each evening, I am worn to a frazzle, and still we have to pay. SOCIAL NEEDS ONLY.

Tonight I have just been to dear friends 60th birthday, but, I had to have PAID CARERS in to enable me to do so.

O.K so we can just about afford it - where does it leave most everyone else.
Goodnight.
 

ElaineMaul

Registered User
Jan 29, 2005
333
0
64
Hi Connie and Helena,
I don't post much .......but I read lots of everyone else's posts. I empathise with all of you as I saw so much of what you are actively coping with when my father in law was alive; he died in 2001. My Dad is still very much at the early stages; those who don't know him would probably not notice much wrong.

Nevertheless, this social care / health care distinction is still a total nonsense. It's the health problem that results in someone's daily needs having to be done by someone else. And my heart goes out to you Connie ...... I hope you enjoyed your friend's birthday.

I guess having our loved ones sectioned would be the answer ....... by the so-and-sos KNOW we wouldn't do that ......... got us by the short and curlies??

I feel a torrent of letters coming on .......... (but I also need to go to bed!!!!)

Elaine
 

Lila13

Registered User
Feb 24, 2006
1,342
0
And when someone is sectioned you don't know what sort of horrible place they'll get put into.
 

lou lou

Registered User
Nov 9, 2005
46
0
London
Seems to me you are better off if you do not own property or have savings.

Before she went into hospital my mums income was £208 per week,got full housing and council tax benefit and paid only £2.86 per week rent. My MIL who had some savings recieved only £68 per week and paid the full £76 per week rent on her bungalow meaning she lived off her savings for most of her elder years whereas if she had spent the money, gone on holidays, had a good time she would have had a similar income to my mum. Why do people scrimp and save and then seem to be penalised for doing so ?

( actually up until 12 months previously my mum had only been getting the basic state pension as I never realised she had never claimed all the benefits she was entitled to as many many elderly people do not.)

My brother and I considered buying mums 4 bedroom council house for her a few years ago but thankfully had the foresight to predict this situation as any value that might have been materialised would just have been eaten up by her care home costs.

My mum was admitted to a lovely care home last year where her fees are paid for by Social Services. She was placed in a nearly new care home only a few miles from where she had lived for 50 years we . It was reccomended to us by SS and we couldn't find anything better.My mum lived in a council house so had no property to sell and very few savings, her place was approved almost immediately.

After she left hospital and went to the care home her social worker asked me why I hadn't asked for respite care. I've said this on this forum before, quite simply I didn't know I could. If she'd had any resources we would have had to pay, if she didn't we wouldn't. Its all so unfair as owning a house doesn't mean you have any money.

I guess we 4 children could have financed her care but then what do we all pay 40% tax and huge NI contributions for !

My mum was assessed as needing nursing care because of her physical ailments but she could have managed all of that if not for her dementia. This health / social care division is truly maddening and virtually meaningless.

There is an employers campaign going on at the moment to allow tax credits for carers a bit like how they do now for parents. It would at least be a start to recognise the unpaid caring that saves government millions of pound every year.

The new national proposals for assessing NHS Continuing care are also out for consultation.

As much as you might love someone, caring 24/7 is a huge burden that often causes carers health to suffer. I looked after my mum for years before she went into hospital all through my own cancer treatment and chemotherapy but I could not have afforded to give up work to become her full time carer and even if I could there comes a time when you have to acknowledge that you would never be able to do everything that needs doing. Having my own family to care for as well probably stopped me.

Some days having mum in a care home feels like a failure other times I remind myself that it is a blessed relief. I can go and visit my mum now and put some effort into cheering her up without feeling worn down by all the physical caring.

I think respite care should be freely available in order to support carers without whom the NHS and Social services would be unworkable.

To anyone currently living the 24/7 keep posting, the humour and resourcefulness of people on TP never ceases to amaze and amuse me ( sorry for rambling, but I like to keep up with TP while I idle away my lunch break. Tssk time to idle now there's a luxury)

Kind regards to all

Lou Lou
 

Helena

Registered User
May 24, 2006
715
0
Lou Lou

I could not agree more

I find it totally and utterly despicable that someone like my Mother 90 who struggled to do 3 jobs in the 50s because she was left alone with 2 children and there was NO SOCIAL SECURITY ........she scrimped and scraped and has done all her life ..........managed to buy a tiny bungalow on a mortgage in 1968 and now faces having it all ripped away in care home fees

She paid the same tax and NI on a very low wage probably just the same as your Mother

If the care home does not rip it away that nasty mean minded Gordon Brown sure will in Inheritance tax

Tony Blair in his speech in 1997 stated

" I do not want my children to live in a country where the elderly are robbed of their homes to pay for care "

He is the biggest thief of all