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Time to concentrate on the positives
I recently spoke at the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) spring seminar.
I was keen to raise a debate with directors on the importance of the reforms we are currently introducing in adult social care in England. I encouraged directors to create a climate where we in social care take pride in our work, and transmit that positive attitude to those outside the sector, in particular the media.
The presentation was informed by some recent visits to councils where I met staff and people who use services. Among the case studies of first class care, one from Surrey County Council particularly stood out for me.
The case involved a family comprised of a couple, “Mr and Mrs P” and their children, aged five, three and four months. Mr P suffers from obesity and depression, while Mrs P has a rare bone disorder, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Type three, diagnosed in 2006 but undiagnosed for around nine years before this.
The five-year-old was diagnosed with the same condition in 2008 and already requires a wheelchair for outdoor use. The second child is beginning to show symptoms and is undergoing tests. The third child was two months premature and there are concerns about her development.
The family moved into their current home in August 2008. Their care needs were recognised and Self Assessment Questionnaires (SAQs) were completed for both parents and support plans were drawn up.
As well as continued support for Mrs P, provision was made for Mr P to improve his health and fitness through assistance in weight loss, support to allow him more leisure time and to increase his motivation in day-to-day activities.
Other items included relief from caring for the children to allow free time for the couple to spend together, the purchase of a laptop to allow more contact with family friends, the landscaping of the garden to allow easy and safe access, and the continued employment of Mrs P’s mother as a carer for 20 hours a week.
The family described how their lives had been transformed by the help they had planned with their social worker.
I think this is an example of social work at its very best - creative social workers helping a family with severe needs through creating an individual care package that makes a real difference to their lives.
In this time when negative stories about social workers and the social care system abound, stories like this one all too frequently get lost. This is not to say that shortcomings in social services and their sometimes tragic consequences should not be reported, but so much of the good that care and support workers do gets overlooked.
I would be interested to hear any examples you may have of care and support work that has improved people’s lives.
I could not agree more! Please report some positive stories that involve care for individuals. When there is no alternative to residential care, relatives need some reassurance that everything they read in the paper is not true.
I have set up a 'positive comments' box for residents, relatives and visitors of care homes, to share their thoughts with others who are looking for care. I have been overwhelmed by some of the stories that are in effect providing personal recommendations of these care homes, by the people that know them the best.
For example, D.. Lodge offers support and care for people with complex mental health problems and this is an example of one of many positive comments I have received "J.. has always gone more than the extra mile in the level of support provided and as a result you simply could not hope to find a finer..care home"
A relative of a resident in a care home in Hastings wrote "My mother is a resident of O. House and I have been most impressed by every aspect of the care that she has received. ...The media always paints a very negative picture - but don't believe everything that you read!"
I could go on and on, in a few days I have received nearly 200 comments about care homes in England that echo these sentiments. So I say lets hear it for the best care homes!
Debbie Harris
You say, 'the purchase of a laptop to allow more contact with family friends, the landscaping of the garden to allow easy and safe access, and the continued employment of Mrs P’s mother as a carer for 20 hours a week.'
When can I have my free laptop, my garden landscaped and pay my spouse 20 hours a week to care for me? I have enclosed an email address and if contacted will give full information, so that you can send me details of when I can collect my free, new laptop, date of landscaping gardener arriving and a series of cheques for 20 hours care per week. You claim that this is all readily available, so I expect a quick reply, (I am Concentrating on the Positives).
After all I have worked, paid taxes and spent long hours for the past 30 years on many community projects for free. I have worked up to 14 hours a day and 7 days a week to afford my own home, (It is called bettering yourself, in case you are vaguely interested), just to be stabbed in the back by feckless wastrels who are envious of my progress in an effort at vote catching.
Now that I need assistance, due to a long term disability, it has been a question of heating or eating, (benefits cover one or the other, not both). Now that I need care, and as all the care homes in Staffordshire were closed by the New Labour County Council, it will be snatched away to pay for unwanted ID cards, NHS computer systems that will never work, jobsworths such as Director Generals at the Department of Health and greedy MP's fiddled expenses.
Your attitude to disabled people such as myself is, NO! you don't deserve anything and we will crush you underfoot for having the temerity to ask. You claim that users were asked and listened to, (as long as they gave the 'right' answers), you will only get honesty from me.
I will repost here when I get the information requested. No reposting, no laptop, gardener or cheques. Still 'Concentrate on the Positives' and I will only be disappointed, if I live long enough. Oh sorry, did I miss that bit out, about living on borrowed time. Just another care statistic.
all this green paper is aimed at is the social sevices and care homes those that are managing in their own homes and who have a good support system will suffer unless you are willing to have social services sticking their nose in you wont get any help i do not want to be a statistic of the social services ,i do not have any confidence in them ,they cant cope with the workload now so what chance do we have and dont say our money will pay for the training of new staff i want my money to pay for my disability living and nothing else.
I think that any officials reading the replies to these blog entries should heed the words of people like Joseph, instead of concentrating on the case studies that are paraded by managers and directors involved in social care. Yes, there may be success stories, but I suspect that pressure to perform means that those in government are all too willingly blinkered by those who have to prove the prescribed level of success. People invest their hard -earned money in this country because they believe in a system which looks after them once they can no longer help society. This is evident in the common misunderstanding that the state pays for social care. People believe in the welfare state. It must come as a bitter disappointment to many when they experience the reality of having to rely on the state.
ONE ONLY ONLY HAS TO LOOK AT THE BABY P CASE TO SEE HOW DISJOINTED GOVERNMENT AND SOCIAL SERVICES ARE. WASTE YOUR OWN MONEY NOT MY DISABILITY PAYMENTS!!
DLA has to be threre to promote our quality of life and independence, take it away or alter our atonomy and you take away our independence and choices
I am claiming DLA, LRC & LRM . I have been told if I had help supporting my claim I would get the higher rate of mobility. I have a Mental health disorder. I do not want to seek for the higher rate as I do not want to claim these benefits as I am scared to. If people find out that I get these benefits then I will mosy definately will get the title as above.
I also get income support as I have missed out on paying some of my NI due to illness, so do not qualify for the incapacity benefit. Now ESA is introduced, private companies are getting commission to get people back into work or into support groups.
I personally would rather die than be abused by people pushing me in any direction.
In my area there are care homes and they have wonderful staff for the elderly and they are supported 100%. By creating ' care in the community ' it is leading the way for more abuse and open to individuals profiitting from peoples suffering.
Charities are keping quiet about all this change as now they are getting funded to provide support groups but only self help is being offered. This is not helpful when certain disorders are open to criticism.
People with personality disorders that were put into jail are now being treated in the community but the funding and care is not there .
Walking schemes are sprouting up to get people who are agrophobic to walk and exercise.
Just give us all a yellow star and tell us to jump because that is what it feels like .
I'm sure many of you are like me and one of the first things you do in the morning is head here and check out the new post. Along with seeing the new posts, I'm also always checking out the blog roll rss feed and watching them grow, or shrink sometimes. In one of my past ...but all in all excellent site. Keep it up!
I think that the direct payments part of the current system is a success.
As a recipient of benefits I am wondering what Social Services could possibly do to help me in this proposed new system. Will they organise my vehicle to be fixed or change my soaked bedsheets in the middle of the night, as needed ?
The current system of payment directly to me suits me perfectly. It means that I can get someone to help in whatever way I need at the time.
People with disabilities are as varied as people without disabilities. We all need something different. Direct payment means that we can tailor the service to suit our needs at the time, not be offered whatever it is that Social Services happen to be able to give for the whole year.
Yes, the current system does need to be updated. However I do not believe that you have explored all possible options. Talk to us, the people who have difficulty getting out of the house to attend meetings. You know who we are because we receive benefits. In this consultation noone has told me what is going on, and now I am writing this short note at the last minute.