Research study: caring for a person with dementia and your experiences of social services

[sdmhred]

@Rishile
Your long story would be SO good for social work trainees to hear. you have such experience to share of both good and bad practice.

 

[Rishile]

@Rishile
Your long story would be SO good for social work trainees to hear. you have such experience to share of both good and bad practice.

@sdmhred yes, I have a range of emotions regarding Social Services, just not sure I have the time.

 

[sdmhred]

I completely agree @Rishile. All of us here want to advocate for dementia and carers rights but the nature of the beast means we don’t have the time and headspace to share our knowledge

 

[Rishile]

A lot of the information is on this forum from January 2023 if @HarrietD would like to read through my messages. I would happily answer any questions if required.

 

[SeaSwallow]

Hi @SeaSwallow - no worries. There's no hurry and I completely understand. I just wanted to check the documents were accessible for you. Karen

Hello @Karen Atkinson I have printed off the documents, and they are very clear.

 

[Karen Atkinson]

Can I ask if this is a question/answer request or do you want a 'story'? I have a long story to tell but it could take a long time for me to complete as my carer duties take up a lot of my time.

Hi @Rishile, yes I'm very much interested in carers' stories. It doesn't matter how long it takes and you can choose what format you want to tell this - email, via Conversation option on this forum, or by Zoom or Teams face-to-face. I am happy with whatever you feel most comfortable with. If you would like to go forward, can you email me at karen.atkinson@sunderland.ac.uk and I will send you some more information about the study along with a Consent form to sign to agree participation. Looking forward to hearing from you. Karen

 

[Karen Atkinson]

@Rishile
Your long story would be SO good for social work trainees to hear. you have such experience to share of both good and bad practice.

Thanks @sdmhred. I'm very much interested in real carers' stories and I agree, I feel it's important that these get heard by social work trainees. @Rishile, do contact me via email and we can take it from there (karen.atkinson@sunderland.ac.uk)

 

[jen O]

Thanks so much for replying. It's interesting that you see the service having gone downhill but I am pleased to hear you previously had excellent support when you needed it.

Hi Izzy, can you contact me by directly by messaging me through this forum (click on my name and then 'Start conversation'), or by tbfeed themselves oerllllemailing me at karen.atkinson@sunderland.ac.uk. At the moment (I think because I am new to the forum), I can't see an option to open Conversations myself (I think I have to post 10 times to do that)

I agree service freewheeling downhill. What will you u guys so in ten fifteen years?? whenb someone with dementia who cant feed or drink themselves and who is incontinent or commicate doesn't qualify for funding or has to jump through hoops. And yet the ppl who run residential homes are allowed to run them for profit. When I say profit I mean millions m

 

[jen O]

Care is not cheap.

 

[jen O]

Glad it's interesting try living with it 24/7.

 

[Orsonkartt]

Hello yoy, thanks for replying. It's so important that carers voices are heard and I appreciate you taking the time to post. Participation in the research study is entirely voluntary and I can understand you not wanting to re-live the experience again. If you do change your mind, you would be very welcome to participate in the study. You can contact me by directly messaging me through this forum by clicking on my name and then 'Start conversation', or by emailing me at karen.atkinson@sunderland.ac.uk Thanks again.

I won’t be contacting you for pretty much the same reasons. That and if I had a spare hour or two I’d want it for myself. Thanks for asking and best of British

 

[DonnaW]

The only experience I have so far with Social Services is chasing them up. I was told 5 weeks ago that a urgent assessment would be requested but they couldn't say when. There is a waiting list. In the meantime I am trying to do everything and am very tired

 

[SAP]

I am perhaps in a different situation as I worked with social services as a carers advisor as well as being a care myself. I have had good and bad experiences both personally and professionally of working with social workers, the upside of my role and experience meant that I could cut through the ******** ( no other word for it) and tell services what I expected, what their role was and how I would deal with anything less that the correct input. And believe me I have complained for my self and my mum but mostly for other cares being sidelined by shoddy services and complete lack of professionalism by social workers. You might not want my input but it’s there is you do. I no longer have a hands on care role and I took early retirement to manage the situation with my mum so I do have some time.

 

[Alisongs]

I've thought about this thread for a while. My experiences of social workers and social services left me with an incredibly low opinion of them (that's putting it politely). Having thought about it I'm not sure that I want to re-live it all again or that I could keep it civil one to one.

Same here