What Can We Do About Our Care Home Problem?

[youngmafbog]

Care home watchdogs have reported on 5,300 care homes this year finding 2,000 inadequate or in need of improvement which implies around 70,000 vulnerable residents are are not being cared for at the required standard.

So lets get one thing out the way and save some who wont think before putting digit to keyboard some embarrassment, this has nothing to do with cuts to the NHS, these are private.

Knowing people who work in care I've known about this for some time. One of the main problems in the UK seems to come from imported labour who are not trained and speak little English. There attitude to the elderly is totally different to our expectations but care home bosses, pocketing big wads of cash whilst the workers barely get minimum wage, just dont seem to care.

Perhaps part of the problem is that, unlike the Asian family, in the West we no longer want to be part of a large group all looking out for each other instead opting for individual careers and living often miles apart. And yes, my family is part of that.

But what can be done? This does seem to be a Western thing not just the UK.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4766346/At-70-000-vulnerable-people-risk-care-homes.html

[woofgang]

OG so where (on this planet if possible) has it worked?

[Zacs-Master]

Has no one read Naomi's post? Nationalisation is impossible, there are far too many people making far too much money for that to ever happen, even under a labour government. Not even worth considering.
I don't profess to know what the answer is, but I fear it is far from simple and would take decades. CCTV and social media / mainstream media will hopefully make the perpetrators think twice.

[woofgang]

There isn’t the teeniest weeniest all but undetectable touch of sarcasm in that response is there ZM?....I mean you never would would you :)

[Zacs-Master]

Not in the slightest. I was being deadly serious. Why do you ask?

[woofgang]

oh.....no reason.......

[Zacs-Master]

Mmm.

[AlfStewart]

If this only is a uk problem we have to look at what our euro neighbors are doing, copy them rinse and repeat

[youngmafbog]

I dont believe it is just a UK problem, more a Western problem.

[EDDIE51]

It is a Western problem. I and my wife have worked in 4 care homes, most staff are from Eastern Europe. We are constantly asked why British families do not respect and care for their elderly but send them to care homes. In their own countries the older you are the more respect you get, they regard it as a vital family duty to care for the older family members. I have tried explaining about house prices in the UK and the need to work. But I get blank looks and replies like, what's the point of working if your wages just pay for care of your relatives, why not just stop work and look after your family?

[mikey4444]

YMB....to be honest, I am not sure what happens in other European countries.

[Old_Geezer]

I'm not going to search for you for the millions of occasions nationalisation has worked well woofie. But feel free to do your own search.

[EDDIE51]

From having spoken to a few French people, care homes are a lot less common in France, they believe in care by the family as well.

[mikey4444]

Care in the family would be difficult to work here in Britain. It would probably mean one or perhaps two adults having to give up work and look after elderly relatives, and then where would the money come from ?

Who would continue to pay the mortgage and all the living expenses ?

Most old people with dementia need specialist care.

[Old_Geezer]

One might point out to them that care homes are society's way to fairly care for the elderly. Families will have different abilities to be able to cope with their elderly relatives, so care homes ensure a way to give all elderly folk the care they need in an environment designed to suit them. That said, as this thread points out, not all achieve the necessary minimum standards. Besides not all old folk go to care homes, many retain their independence while others find they have to put up with the family taking then in and being in charge.

[cassa333]

When I was young it seems that most care homes were run by the local authority. They sold them all off and 'outsourced' it because THEY COULDNT DO IT for the amount of money they were prepared to pay.

Care costs more than you think and rather than making private pay more (always a good mantra from the socialist left) why not everyone pays the same and if the LA don't pay it all you have to top it up yourself.

If you can't afford the care home of your choice you get to stay in one of the lovely LA run homes. That home should be run obviously at not for profit but must work and survive with the amount they pay for everyone.

That way you nationalise the bit for people that can't afford to pay the extra.

[Old_Geezer]

If they couldn't do it then no one else can. Privatising it and then ignoring how others appear to be doing it at profit, is unacceptable. Either society agrees that there is a need and is morally obliged to fund it properly or it is sticking its head in the sand and not caring for society's citizens properly.