Likewise @anxious annie I too have to wear mask, gloves, & apron so flimsy it would not protect from a floating dandelion. And time limited visits, only allowed in the conservatory, accessible from outside. (Why weren't they using it for visiting previously?) One thing I find apalling is that some (not all) carers end the visit abruptly without warning and I am given no time to wind the visit down, as it were (not actually say goodbye because that might cause distress).Sorry to hear about your mum's fall @Palerider , and also how care isn't quite what it should be.
I've just got back from staying at my sister's and had a couple of visits to see mum. The weather wasn't good enough to take her out for a walk, so my husband and I had 2 indoor visits.
They are in a designated room, I'd rather be in mum's own room where there are familiar items, photos etc to promote chat and so I can have a "tidy" as I used to pre covid. Also if visits were in residents own room there wouldn't be the limits of a 30 minute slot. It seems that all care homes follow guidance, but interpret it as they prefer.
Mum's carers are lovely and she is happier now indoor visits allowed.
I wonder if anyone can explain to me why, as a visitor, after my LFT I had to wear mask, apron and gloves ( I wasn't doing any "personal care" ), but the carer who brought mum to the visitor room only had to wear a mask?
I know the thought is now that infection risk from a surface ( eg my jumper?) is low, and also the apron is so flimsy and doesn't cover my arms etc What a huge cost to taxpayers and the environment if all this plastic isn't for any real purpose? Just ticking a box?
I wonder if you know why visitors have to wear the ppe @Palerider? If there's a good reason I will happily wear it, but mum always asks me why?
Ps good luck with your interview
Hi Pete,Hi @Palerider, sorry to hear about your Mum's fall and also the decline in care provision, which seems to be a theme that many are experiencing now they are finally allowed to visit. It obviously is a combination of things as you have outlined, but the absence of visitors (with very little external inspection) must be the key. I would visit Mum daily and always pick up on the basic care delivery - clean glasses, clean teeth (or even teeth in!), hair, personal hygiene, and dress. In fairness the Manager of Mum's unit always dealt with issues that I raised (some things I sorted myself but raised with them). It is the bare minimum that anyone should expect. It is incredibly sad that families have been excluded for so long. As you state there needs to be radical reform, however, we know lip-service is paid to social care and has been for the last 11 years. Sadly it is something you really only understand when it touches your life - a friend of mine mentioned this last year when her mother needed care and came to me for advice, she had no understanding of the systems or the stress involved in commissioning care and even what to ask for (it was home care at that time, but has moved on to residential care). She had know what I had been through with my parents and actually said she didn't really have any understanding until she had experienced it - despite hearing me banging on about it!! As you say it is well known that it is a ticking time-bomb with an aging population (and a serious issue in pockets of the country already) - but is something that is repeatedly kicked into the long grass for someone else to deal with in four years time. As the only real solution - as Dilnott pointed out, what 10 years ago? - is significant investment into the system.
I hope all goes well with the interview.
Pete
I think this is the experience of many people, and yet for those to walk this pathI don't think I will ever get over some of the shock/horror moments though. Makes me think I must have led a pretty sheltered life before mum got dementia - it opened my eyes in so many ways.
It's beautiful here too. Saturday is my photo-taking day (work stuff) but it makes my back ache and the sunshine is beckoning. Compost has just arrived so I could plant up some pots/tubs instead...And there's a bottle of rosé lurking in the fridge...Anyway I have 9 days left of which I am working mostly to prepare to defend my doctoral proprosal and I also have two very cold bottles of Frizzante in the fridge on a fine summers day -errr
I have very deeply read around this...and I think I have enough to defend .....I think the proposal will become a paper for publishing so watch out as it has some very ineteresting things to say about the state of dementia care and the status quo -thats all I can sayGood luck!
Once it is peer reviewed and I am happy I will publish....but I have to warn anyone out there its news is bleakCan't wait to see it. You'll have to send us a link