Scotland on Sunday

[Skye]

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/spectrum.cfm?id=1433052007

Article about caring, with reference to an exhibition just opened in the Edinburgh parliamant building.

The exhibition has been put on by Princess Royal Trust, and will tour Scotland when it leave Edinburgh.

John and I are in the exhibition, and there are two photos of us in the paper this morning, but none on the website. The paper didn't interview us, too far from Edinburgh I guess!

Stil, it's all publicity, and better than the Sun's effort!

 

[DeborahBlythe]

Hazel, thanks for this link. It looks like it will be an amazing exhibition and I'm sorry that you don't feature more prominently with John. Where is your pic(s)?

I have just read the story about Colin and his father Willi with Vascular dementia. He says that if his father were admitted to a care home it would cost him £500 per week and eat up all his savings. I thought the system worked differently in Scotland so I'm a bit puzzled by this. Anyway, I can see why he would want to keep close to him and the isolation must go double for people in rural communities.
Thanks for posting this link. I'll return later. Love Deborah xx

 

[Skye]

The pic may appear on the TP when the re-design is finished.

We were invited to Edinburgh for the grand opening, but it was impossible the way John is at present. It doesn't arrive in Dumfries until Feb, so we'll have to wait till then. We have got a copy of the portraits, though, and a glossy catalogue of the exhibition.

I'm a bit puzzled by the £500 as well. Personal care is free here, so it shouldn't be as much as that, though we do pay for everything else. I'm waiting for our financial assessment, so we'll see!

 

[jenniferpa]

Regarding the £500 etc: what drives me nuts about this sort of article is that the people who write them sometimes have no idea about whether or not they are getting accurate information from their interviewees. So one can get bogged down in the "hold on: that's not right" thoughts and miss the main message.

 

[Mameeskye]

Hi

I do hope that I can see this exhibition at some time.

With regard to the figures quoted they are not out of the box to me at all. My Mum is self funding with a nursing care top up. It still costs my Mother £440 per week of her own funds with an additional £210 paid by the government to cover her care. She is not in a major city were land costs are much higher so the figure of £500 per week for the self funded care does not seem out of the box. This is for a place in a respected EMI unit.

Yes, the elderly up here get free personal care for which the allowance is £145 and £210 a week if assessed as needing nursing care but they get no care allowance and there is no NHS continuing care paid.

Care costs are horrendous. Last year Mum's fees increased by £80 per week. The nursing allowance has not increase once since 2003 when Mum first started to receive it, yet the minimum wage gas increased annually and this and fuel costs are what the home say causes the costs to rise.

I feel like I am held to ransom with my Mother and her care costs. I will not move her as she is in a good home and to move her could be her death sentence. My understanding is that funded patients have council's paying up to £100 per week less for exactly the same care standard and this is why self funding patients pay so much (I suppose you could say that the council's get a discount for block booking!)

My mother needs this level of care because she is ill. She has scrimped and saved all her life and gone without to own her own home. She and my Dad paid taxes. She is now additionally taxed for her prudence. Why should we save and pay mortgages all our life??

Mameeskye

 

[jenniferpa]

Of course parents are a slightly different ball game to spouses (or they are in England). This chap's issue seems to be that the LA would expect him to sell the family farm in order to pay the care bills. Now I'm not sure if he is or is not right about that and this sort of minimal reporting doesn't allow one to assess whether he's got hold of the right end of the stick.

 

[Mameeskye]

Hi Jennifer

Yes, spouses are different and I know that the marital home cannot be sold while a spouse resides there. If however they have savings and other capital that is taken into the calculation. You are right that the media do not get the full story, but it e.g.it was the case that the father resides alone and the farm is completely in his name then this would class as the capital when assessing the ability to self fund.

I have no problem with my mother being charged a fair amount, it is the unfairness of the system that gets to me with different rates, huge increases and a government who increases the costs for employers without increasing their contributions to those affected by the said changes eg those who do receive a nursing or personal care allowance. In other circumstances I am sure that trading standards would be investigating the phrases "free" personal care or "free" nursing care !!

Mameeskye

 

[jenniferpa]

but it e.g.it was the case that the father resides alone and the farm is completely in his name then this would class as the capital when assessing the ability to self fund.

My point was not necessarily (or at least, not necessarily in England). As per the age concern website

"The local authority (but not the Pension Service) also has a discretionary
power to ignore the value of any premises where the local authority
considers it reasonable to do so, for instance, if it is lived in by someone
who does not fit into the above categories - perhaps, a younger relative
who is not incapacitated but has been helping to look after you; or a
friend who lives with you who is 60 or over."

But, of course, it's not possible to tell whether this individual has investigated this or if they've just taken what they've been told or read as gospel.

I am completely in accord with you over the larger issue of charging for care. I never got to the point of having to deal with care home costs increasing, but it's difficult enough to budget because you simply don't know how long the resident will live, let alone what inflationary increases might be.