25th Jan – 8th Feb 2016

My second week on placement and I am still loving it, I am feeling extremely tired though and I am struggling to keep up the pace. I will keep ‘bashing’ on as this is important to me.

This week has been a bit of a ‘mish’ ‘mash’ and the ‘norm’ has been that I have only had one carer arriving in the evening. This is annoying as I am driving for three hours a day and when I arrive home each evening I still need to make diner, help my children with their homework and clean the house and then get everyone’s clothes ready for the next day. My arms and legs are sore from the drive, I am not used to driving long journeys.

My second Friday off has arrived, it is the 29th of January and I have a busy day ahead of me. I need to drop my mum at the day care centre and then go to another appointment that I have scheduled with the orthopaedic consultant. It has been decided that key hole surgery on my shoulder will be the best option. Hopefully this will stop the pain……

Sometime this week the Ombudsman called me, they said that they would not be able to take my complaint forward. The complaint regarding the bruising that my mum sustained in the care home. I am getting fed-up with the fight, I really am. why do people get away with such things, actually why the hell do people do such horrible and degrading things. Even worse why does our system allow people to get away with these acts……. I am baffled.

I received an email on the 3rd of February from my local authority and I understood the top two paragraphs, however, I disagree with them in the sense that we were not informed of the charges until the beginning of Sept 2015 and therefore should not have to pay any money from March 2015. The Local Authority still say that my mum owes them money for transport costs, even, during the period that she was unaware that she was being charged, because no-one from the Local Authority thought to tell us.

The paragraphs following this make no sense to me at all, apart from the bit that talks about the discretionary panel. I have a problem with the discretionary panel as items are capped within this, therefore, you could never prove that your spending, due to severe disability, is more than the average living expenses. Out with this part the rest of the content I find confusing.

I have posted my complaint regarding the local authority to the ombudsman, hopefully, they can sort it all out fairly.

I am losing hope though.

Today is the 5th of February 2016 and I have come across a couple of interesting news articles

Number 1

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/perth-kinross/care-home-worker-who-forced-resident-to-drink-cup-of-tea-struck-from-register-1.888557

I cannot believe that I am reading this. It is clear to see that all the actions that my Local Authority put in place to prevent further abuse in this care home failed. I am so sorry for the poor person that had to endure such degrading treatment. If my mum’s upheld complaint had been made public knowledge then maybe this person would not have endured what she endured.

Number 2

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/perth-kinross/council-climbdown-after-ham-fisted-care-services-review-1.865651

What a joke, it says in this article dated April 2015 that the Local Authority were going to sort out the mess that they had made of the implementation of the Charges and Contributions Policy. Yet, in September 2015 my mum gets told she owes over £7000. Once again I can clearly see failed practice and lack of consideration of the impact of their blunders on people like my mum and I and my family as a whole.

This must be why they have been so hard handed and dismissive of me, they do not want to show that the implementation of this policy is still failing. I will keep fighting and I will take this as high as I can. I am not going to rest until I know I can do no more. Too many people are being negatively effected by this.

The Charges and Contributions Policy and the way it has been implemented has caused my mum to be isolated from her community. A frail, vulnerable woman is being forced and is being given the choice of either living in extreme poverty or to be exiled at home. It is not on and it is not fair. My Local Authority have a big push on at the moment for people like my mum to live within their communities, if this is the case, then they should fully support that. Maybe, they should just pay me the £900 a week it would cost for my mum to live in a nursing home. Instead of trying to rob my mum of what little income she has. Talk about stealing from the poor and the vulnerable and giving to the rich huh!! Reversing Robin Hood.

Taking austerity to the extreme.

 

14th Jan – 24th Jan 2016

 

I am on a University placement at present and things are busy for me. I am finding I have very little time to write my blog on a day-to-day format, week by week. For this reason, I am only going to be able to write it when I can, hopefully, this will still allow me to write any key points that I have regarding my life as a carer, a mum and a student.

My new life. My new routine.

I wake at 6am, I get washed and dressed. I put on some make-up, I feel the need to do this as I am going to be out and about and meeting people. I prepare my mums clothes for the carer arriving. I wake my children at 7am. I put everything I need for my placement in a bag and make a coffee for my journey to my placement. I check that my children are getting ready. The carer arrives and we have a quick chat. I kiss my children good bye and I leave for my placement. The journey to my placement takes one hour and twenty minutes.

Its time to go home. The time is usually around 5pm. Its dark and its cold and its raining, the journey home is horrible. I arrive home at around 6.30 pm. I check on my mum and then I begin making dinner. By 8pm we have ate dinner and we have washed the dishes. The carers arrive and they begin getting my mum ready for bed.

My mum stays at home all day now as no-one can take her to the day care centre, I feel so sad for her, she must feel extremely lonely.

This is both my mums and my routine Monday through to Thursday. I am off Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Friday the 22nd of January, my first day off. I woke up at 6.45 am. I checked on my mum and she was still asleep. I woke my children. My children left at 8am. I check on my mum and she is still asleep. The carers arrive at 8.30am. They wash my mum and dress my mum. We wheel my mum to my car and then we put my mum into the car. I drive her to the day care centre.

I drive to my physiotherapist appointment, the physiotherapist takes me through different exercises and sends me on my way. I drive to my nearest city for my appointment with the advocacy agency. I tell the lady from the advocacy team what my complaints and issues are, specifically, the charges and contributions policy and the fact that this has led my mum to be isolated from her community. I ask her if she can help me deal with it, as I have had enough. She agrees to help.

I drive to the day care centre and collect my mum, I take her home.  My children are home by the time I get there, they help me take my mum into the house.

I make dinner and then we eat dinner. I wash the dishes and then begin to study, I have a reflective journal to complete for Saturday. I am loving my placement, what a supportive place to work.

The carers arrive and put my mum into her pj’s. I sit with my mum for a while and we watch tv together. Later my daughter helps me to walk my mum through to her bedroom, we change her pad and we put her to bed.

The weekend passes quick, I have to clean my house, wash all the clothes, dry them and then iron them. I feel that I have little time for anything else.