Bad Week for Caregivers And Those Whom They Care For

Submitted by tonyplant on March 16, 2006 - 17:25.

It's a bad week for carers in the UK.  On Monday, Dr. Crippen posted a diary entry about his Monday morning surgery that detailed the plight of several carers. One of the carers knows that:

when social services “assess” her, she is classified as low need. She knows the system. She worked in it herself. “The best thing I could do is have a heart attack, then we would be high need” she says.

Today, Thursday, it has been announced that Councils To Cut Care For Old and Disabled. Four in five local authorities report that they are about to tighten the eligibility criteria for services for elderly and disabled people. This is in response to funding problems with the NHS that have led to greater than anticipated calls upon Social Care Services budgets.

Almost half the councils reported a cut in funding from local NHS primary care trusts. Councils highlighted the soaring costs of care for the ageing population, unprecedented increases in demand for services for children with a learning disability and rises in fees for care homes. Eighty per cent of councils said they would be tightening further their criteria for provision of services for adults. Thousands who would have received care will go without or pay privately.

So, it looks as if there is going to be no provision for those people who are classified as "low need". Even when there may be strong reasons to suspect that a lack of appropriate support now may lead to a breakdown in the carer's health and create more complex problems in the future. Some carers, like David, have never had a carer's assessment. He has been looking after his wife and son for many years. He says of his situation:

[My] own mental state has come under strain. "I defy you to show me another person caring for their wife and son who hasn't cracked up or left. It's enough to turn you to drink or drugs... Jayne and Jonathan have got me, I've got no one."

It is difficult to read about David and not think that he should be entitled to some support for his work. However, in the absence of a mental or physical breakdown, then it looks like he would not meet the criteria necessary for that support in the majority of local authorities in the UK. It doesn't require any crystal-gazing skills or abilities as an economist to guess that not meeting these 'lower' levels of needs will lead to more complex, and presumably more expensive, health conditions and social problems in the future.

 

Yes, it's a bad week for carers in the UK.

 

Copyright 2006, Tony Plant Happystance Project

social care | dr. crippen | carers | caregivers | care assessment