£11 for 15 minutes of Care..

[truman 10]

Weren't many of those care homes funded from council money?

 

Cutbacks would have shut them down, IMO we do need to put alot more money into care for the elderly.

 

Care homes are still paid by "council money".

[geared 302]

Care homes are still paid by "council money".

 

They are, but has spending not been cut back - or at least not increased to match our ever growing and ageing population?

[Anna B 1,401]

I remember care homes like that. The sort of homes where families put their old people in with a tear in their eye as they knew they'd be dead in six months as the quality of care and facilities meant care homes were just waiting rooms for the grim reaper.

 

Let's not go back to that please.

 

Sorry, not my memories at all. The Council home my Granny was in was very nice, and not very different from a home today. The care workers all talked English and were very kind.

 

Actually, when I compare it with the private home another relative was in recently, which had beautiful full colour brochures, advertising a life of quiet bliss with lots of activities and trips neither of which ever happened, and the awful circumstances of her death 9 months after she moved in, which are simply too horrific to go into here, Granny's was far better.

[alchresearch 214]

Sorry, not my memories at all. The Council home my Granny was in was very nice, and not very different from a home today. The care workers all talked English and were very kind.

 

So you're saying that today's care homes are staffed by nasty non-English speaking foreigners?

 

Do you have any evidence of this or is it yet another thing from the world of Anna's mind?

[Anna B 1,401]

You're comparing apples and oranges. What provisions were in place in the 1970s for a young disabled person compared with today?

 

It was much better in the 70s than now actually.

 

Lots of day care centres, and provision for the disabled in those days. Remploy centres etc. for the vulnerable who wanted to work, the old Asylums were being modernised and redeveloped (I worked in Middlewood Hospital briefly in the early 70s) or closed down completely to be replaced with 'care in the community' which was well funded and worked. It wasn't just words. Another friend of mine worked as a house mother, in one of the small specialised houses for 4 individual people, staffed round the clock, and meant to be a home from home for the residents, and was.

 

Most of the day care centres are now closed, Remploy is gone, and 'care in the community' is just a joke, so all those people are now left to fend for themsellves and cannot cope.

 

I admit the legislation for things like 'access' weren't in place, nor the employment legislation as far as I know, but that is widely ignored these days, or got round, and exists in name only. The Conservatives have cut back every aspect of social care so we are now one of the worst in the Europe.

[mafya 243]

People can afford it. Minimum wage for must adults working full time hours is equivillent to over £1100 a month net. Its just about to increase by another £40 extra per month from April onwards.

 

Treatment plans are available from as little as £7 - £10 a month. If someone really could not set aside such a modest amount each month to pay for their supplementary health needs (beyond essential treatment) then quite frankly they need to think about their priorities more.

 

Why should taxes be reduced? That's the whole problem. Not enough going in and too much being taken out.

 

Those two words again. Personal responsibility.

 

The world does not owe someone a lifestyle.

 

The £40 extra per month will get swallowed up by price increase for goods and services that will also rise with the minimum wage. The only winner is the Govt.

[Anna B 1,401]

So you're saying that today's care homes are staffed by nasty non-English speaking foreigners?

 

Do you have any evidence of this or is it yet another thing from the world of Anna's mind?

 

Where did I ever say they were all nasty foreigners? I said some of them didn't speak English well, that's all, which, when you are old, possibly with hearing difficulties, and wanting conversation, can make a lot of difference.

 

We are constantly being told we need foreign workers to prop up our NHS and care system, and they do work hard all over our social care system, so no, I don't think it's all in my imagination.

 

Quick anecdote: When my Mum was in hospital she became very agitated because she said the Nurse (lovely woman since you asked,) kept telling her she needed a wheel, and she didn't have a wheel and when she asked the nurses for a wheel they looked at her as if she was crackers but she wasn't crackers and now she was worried they all thought she had dementia, and so on, and so on....

Finally tracked it down.. The Nigerian Nurse had been telling her she needed the wheel to get better, ('will to get better.')

 

A simple (quite funny) misunderstanding, but enough to get my poor Mum upset.

[Obelix 11]

I'm of a similar generation, and I can remember it too. I can't believe how much the world has changed. Yes everyone took pride in being self reliant, but we also grew up in a time of optimism and social mobility, when we thought the world could only get better. Every home did have a breadwinner and to be unemployed was something of a disgrace.

 

IMO I think that changed with Margaret Thatcher and mass unemployment in the 80s. There were a fair number who didn't thrive and they became the foundations of the embittered underclass. Thatcher's Britain was built on sand; financial services, greed and fast, easy money, which all came crashing down in the banking crisis of 2008, along with honesty, integrity, moral certitude, kindness and self respect.

 

We now have a new kind of world. Some of us may recover financially, but for me this was the price we all paid.

 

And we are back to the financial crash again.

 

We get that you don't like banking for some reason Anna. But blaming perceived ills such as this on banking is a bit of stretch in anyones book....

[Anna B 1,401]

And we are back to the financial crash again.

 

We get that you don't like banking for some reason Anna. But blaming perceived ills such as this on banking is a bit of stretch in anyones book....

 

The banking crash will turn out to be a defining moment of this century. The point where a lot of people woke up to what was going on. And on what a slippery slope our whole economy is built on. I would argue that nothing has been the same since.

 

The Conservatives have used it to enforce 'Austerity' on the population, but mainly on the poor and vulnerable who can least afford it. I believe Brexit is a direct result of the subsequent resentment, upset and dissatisfaction of a people who are sick of politicians and their lies.

[Obelix 11]

The banking crash will turn out to be a defining moment of this century. The point where a lot of people woke up to what was going on. And on what a slippery slope our whole economy is built on. I would argue that nothing has been the same since.

 

The Conservatives have used it to enforce 'Austerity' on the population, but mainly on the poor and vulnerable who can least afford it. I believe Brexit is a direct result of the subsequent resentment, upset and dissatisfaction of a people who are sick of politicians and their lies.

 

Theres a lot more to this century to go and the banking crash is well behind us now. Brexit is going to be more than the banking crash ever was.

 

None of which has any bearing on the current social care problems which is simply that of too many elderly people.

[Anna B 1,401]

Theres a lot more to this century to go and the banking crash is well behind us now. Brexit is going to be more than the banking crash ever was.

 

None of which has any bearing on the current social care problems which is simply that of too many elderly people.

 

If it's well behind us, why have some of the austerity measures not been rectified? Where are the reopened Public Libraries, Art Galleries, Day care centres etc? Why has social care still not been properly funded? Why are bank interest rates still at ridiculously low levels?

 

I could go on but you get the idea.

 

Too many elderly people? What are you proposing?

[gomgeg 10]

If it's well behind us, why have some of the austerity measures not been rectified? Where are the reopened Public Libraries, Art Galleries, Day care centres etc? Why has social care still not been properly funded? Why are bank interest rates still at ridiculously low levels?

 

I could go on but you get the idea.

 

Too many elderly people? What are you proposing?

What are you proposing? Your solution to everything is to screw the bankers and the rich.

The NHS, Education, the Police, the Forces, the Fire Brigade, Social care etc etc all say they are underfunded, your solution is to soak the rich to pay for everything, don't you think the rich already pay a big percentage of taxes levied and to start increasing them will ultimately lead to less tax revenues as money will be moved to a less punitive tax regime.

We've got people who spend all day on here complaining that others should be paying more but not volunteering to pay more themselves, it's always 'somebody else should pay more'. One even seems quite proud of the fact that he spent 18 years on the dole at one time.