The
care home industry has over the past six months been plagued by bad press
effecting the public’s view of the care home sector. This is
knocking people’s confidence and in one recent news report some families are
looking after their elderly parents rather than put them into a care home.
I think that the success of someone remaining at home depends to a
large extent on the nature and degree of the condition of the cared for person
and the amount of support they need. Even with a good care package the home situation can become so difficult and problematic that a move into care becomes necessary.
One
of the main difficulties for people and their carer's is accessing services and
getting a social care assessment. Due to restructuring and cut backs in the
public sector it is much harder to get social services on board and with
resources at breaking point; getting an assessment particularly a face to face
one is becoming much more difficult. Social Services have a strict
criteria with a tendency to only become involved if the person needing care has
under a certain amount of money which is currently set at £23,500 or has high
or critical needs for instance when facing a crisis. Many elderly people
especially those living with dementia can have extremely complex needs and
specialist care and support is paramount.
The
current system in England is unfair and inequitable with our older generation
being marginalized. The government is looking at ways to make the system
fairer for people and as far as I am concerned the sooner the better.
