What to do about carers?

[Osem]

There have been calls for more people to care for their elderly relatives but how can that be done in practice? What can be done to help families cope with the needs of their elderly relatives, many of whom are suffering from serious and complex conditions like dementia which bring with them unpredictable problems and often require almost 24/7 care?

Unless there's a willing and able family network within realistic proximity, becoming a carer for any length of time is likely to have a huge impact on those involved in terms of their jobs, their future security and their own relationships which come under huge strain. If the toll on carers is such that their lives can be irrevocably damaged in the process of caring how can anyone be expected to take on the job for any length of time?

A good friend of ours has tragically just lost her teenage daughter for whom she's been caring since the girl was born with very serious medical issues. Thus far her whole life has been devoted to her daughter but now, well into her 40's, she's going to lose nearly all the financial support she's relied upon and is now faced with finding her first job and building a career capable of support herself into old age. In caring for her daughter for so long and having no work experience at all, she's effectively sacrificed her own prospects and is likely, I'd have thought, to be reliant on benefits etc. to a greater or lesser extent for the rest of her life.

It may well be possible for a proportion of families to take on and share the caring role in one way or another but for many others that's unlikely to be the case for various reasons and unless they're given more help, the entire burden will fall on the state as would have been the case if our friend had simply put her disabled daughter into care after birth.

In stark contrast to the care of elderly/sick relatives, parents are being encouraged to go out to work and put their children into nurseries etc. with increasing and significant support from the state to enable them to do so. It's ironic that this is being seen as the best option when care of the elderly and sick is increasingly being viewed as a matter for families to deal with relatively little support.

I can't see any viable answer to this problem especially since those who do devote their lives to caring are likely to be left high and dry when their loved one passes away...

Originally Posted by Osem

There have been calls for more people to care for their elderly relatives but how can that be done in practice? What can be done to help families cope with the needs of their elderly relatives, many of whom are suffering from serious and complex conditions like dementia which bring with them unpredictable problems and often require almost 24/7 care?

Unless there's a willing and able family network within realistic proximity, becoming a carer for any length of time is likely to have a huge impact on those involved in terms of their jobs, their future security and their own relationships which come under huge strain. If the toll on carers is such that their lives can be irrevocably damaged in the process of caring how can anyone be expected to take on the job for any length of time?

A good friend of ours has tragically just lost her teenage daughter for whom she's been caring since the girl was born with very serious medical issues. Thus far her whole life has been devoted to her daughter but now, well into her 40's, she's going to lose nearly all the financial support she's relied upon and is now faced with finding her first job and building a career capable of support herself into old age. In caring for her daughter for so long and having no work experience at all, she's effectively sacrificed her own prospects and is likely, I'd have thought, to be reliant on benefits etc. to a greater or lesser extent for the rest of her life.

It may well be possible for a proportion of families to take on and share the caring role in one way or another but for many others that's unlikely to be the case for various reasons and unless they're given more help, the entire burden will fall on the state as would have been the case if our friend had simply put her disabled daughter into care after birth.

In stark contrast to the care of elderly/sick relatives, parents are being encouraged to go out to work and put their children into nurseries etc. with increasing and significant support from the state to enable them to do so. It's ironic that this is being seen as the best option when care of the elderly and sick is increasingly being viewed as a matter for families to deal with relatively little support.

I can't see any viable answer to this problem especially since those who do devote their lives to caring are likely to be left high and dry when their loved one passes away...

I absolutely think that proper care homes should be re opened ,yes it will be expensive but I think it well worth it and I think the money should be raised through extra tax or NI contributions .I don't think it is feasible to encourage families to care for their elderly relatives or disabled children and also expect them to work full time to pay for basics like housing and day to day living.
In my opinion the measure of a decent society is how they care for the elderly and disabled amongst them and causing distress and hardship to families involved is most definitely not the way to go in my opinion .I don't know if it's feasible or not but I wonder if some of the state pension funding could be diverted to reopen some of the care homes given that quite a few pensioners would move into care meaning their cares could enter the work force freeing up more money from carers allowances and even adding to the tax revenue ....just a thought

[Taf]

Carers Allowance = £62.10 per week.

Private Residential Care at a local OAP home (which is about to shut because they "don't make enough profit") = £380 per week for ambulatory residents, almost double for those with mobility problems or bedridden.

Council OAP homes also closing soon.

Carers Allowance was under scrutiny to be "curtailed or restricted" in the next budget before Camoron stepped in.

And that's just the pensioners, growing in number every year, let alone the disabled of all ages.

[Osem]

Therein lies part of the problem. Complying with all the rules, protocols and protections involved in the provision of care makes it massively expensive. Many of these costs can be avoided or mitigated if people are cared for at home by their families, friends etc.

Originally Posted by Taf

Carers Allowance = £62.10 per week.

Private Residential Care at a local OAP home (which is about to shut because they "don't make enough profit") = £380 per week for ambulatory residents, almost double for those with mobility problems or bedridden.

Council OAP homes also closing soon.

Carers Allowance was under scrutiny to be "curtailed or restricted" in the next budget before Camoron stepped in.

And that's just the pensioners, growing in number every year, let alone the disabled of all ages.

If it was possible for most families to manage on a single income then I would suggest the carers allowance was a worthwhile gift ,as things are and given most average families need two incomes to get by then the carers allowance is an insult if it is meant to replace a lost income for a family caring for a sick or elderly relative .Some would say it is the families duty to care for their own and to some extent I would agree but when the goal posts have been moved to the extent that they have then the duty falls on society as a whole IMO

[Taf]

A little snippet you may not be aware of. A carer cannot receive Carers Allowance after State Retirement Age.

Originally Posted by Taf

A little snippet you may not be aware of. A carer cannot receive Carers Allowance after State Retirement Age.

Just proves that all compassion has been taken out of the bean counters equation .

I do a lot of work on care homes ,currently I am working on a big retirement home in Morpeth run by Anchor ,I've been replacing the windows since February .The home is made up of self contained flats that retired people rent from Anchor but increasingly there are elderly people moving in that should really be in a care home ,sometimes carers have to come 3-4 times a day to feed, dress and wash people ,the home was not designed for that and surely it cannot be that cheap having that many carers running around

[Osem]

I think we have to look at this holistically. It's easy to claim something's a cheaper alternative when many of the hidden costs are overlooked, delayed or just discounted. So it may be the case that providing a couple of hours care in someone's home looks much cheaper on the local authority's books but what about all the costs which are then passed onto others in one way or another - including the NHS when old people are hospitalised because they can't cope on their own or their needs have changed and their existing care package isn't sufficient? What about the cost in lost time/work to other carers who're forced to step in at short notice? If he only thing departments care about is their own budgets it's not surprising that we don't get good value for money as the temptation is to leave others to pick up the tab.

[Taf]

The ending of Government-funded Independent Living Fund is going to cause havoc too. Another bill placed with local councils, but only for a couple of years. That last bit is not so well advertised. http://www.disabledgo.com/blog/2015/...edium=facebook

---------- Post added at 13:52 ---------- Previous post was at 12:53 ----------

Dementia care in Wales....

£731m for health and social care, unpaid care equating to £622m, and £6m for other costs including policing for things like missing person inquiries.

"It is not fair or sustainable that carers continue to foot this bill," said Ms Phelps.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-33416772

Originally Posted by Osem

I think we have to look at this holistically. It's easy to claim something's a cheaper alternative when many of the hidden costs are overlooked, delayed or just discounted. So it may be the case that providing a couple of hours care in someone's home looks much cheaper on the local authority's books but what about all the costs which are then passed onto others in one way or another - including the NHS when old people are hospitalised because they can't cope on their own or their needs have changed and their existing care package isn't sufficient? What about the cost in lost time/work to other carers who're forced to step in at short notice? If he only thing departments care about is their own budgets it's not surprising that we don't get good value for money as the temptation is to leave others to pick up the tab.

Absolutely agree ,we have seen a few government contractors give up on contracts (G4S for one) because it simply doesn't pay for private sector companies to take on these type of contracts ,worst still are those contractors doing shoddy work but continuing to contract (G4S for another one ) because they only make any profit by doing below standard work .All that happens in the long run is tax payers footing a bigger bill than they otherwise would by allowing the state to run all aspects of our health care