Think of this: a plan to ‘warehouse’ disabled people.

[SerendipityJane]

maybe just send them to Rwanda ? Out of sight, out of mind etc ...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/25/warehouse-disabled-people-bristol-city-council

There isn’t a bottomless pit of money though that’s the real issue. Everyone believes their rights are more important than others but something has to give somewhere. What say we stop ivf treatments and put that money towards keeping people in their own homes. I’ve been waiting four months on my cancer treatment starting- I would have bumped a couple desperate for a child if it meant I could have started my treatment sooner. Selfish - yes, absolutely but it all comes down to money. We could all pay more tax - I would, wouldn’t be much but if we all did it??

Well there was a bottomless pit of money for PPE which was way overpriced, not even functional so not able to be used and made a lot of very rich people even richer.

We have spent billions of pounds socialising losses and privatising profits, countless governments over the past 30/40 years have done the same thing

We have spent billions just recently funding privatiers in terms of covid supplies, HS2, windfarms, Rwanda, the list is endless, thats the tip of the iceberg

There is the money, there are systems that could be employed to ensure we have the right levels of staffing and professionals to work in these fields. There just isnt the will (from the public or politicians) to do so.

In the case of care there’s an awful lot of public money funding hedge funds. There’s the money. It just needs to be fund care, not hedge fund owners.

I worked with people, young adults who are in residential homes who do have these packages of care, I know how some of these homes are run. I also know that some are dire and those for the elderly are quite different so I dont know why there is a comparison here about 'care homes' and what this might be for a person in the article.

Just because you disagree with me, it doesnt mean you know all about it and I dont.

What an incredibly depressing thread. I worry enough now about what will happen to DD when I'm not here.

Our society is truly broken. Some of the responses on here make me feel sick.

If we suggested this for single mothers (which I am), non working benefit claimants or all people over 70 then there would be outrage.
But it's the disabled so it's, ok I guess. They don't really have much quality of life anyway (sarcasm)

And this has been allowed because people want public services run like business, so they dont want the local council to have land or buildings sitting there, they want it outsourced, commissioned, tendered for, sold off

So they've got what they wanted

The example another poster gives about her son's care package and it not being owned by a bigger organisation, Im sorry to say that wont last, they will be bought up by bigger organisations in time, they will sell out.

While I agree with much of this, I mean the whole idea that billionaires even exist is just wrong. It's not even about the money though, it's about the people to provide the care. We just don't have enough to provide care. Africa is the only continent where people are still having lots of children. I suppose we could try to arrange that they provide the world with carers but even that would be short term. In South Korea, for example, under current trends, 100 great grandparents will have six descendants between them. Most of those 100 great grandparents will still be alive as well, many needing care. The numbers just don't add up and while declining birth rates are great for the planet and I wouldn't want to increase them, they will also create serious problems that I don't know how they can be solved.

I understand why they're doing it. The cost for supporting disabled people has gone up by double. There isn't enough money in the pot, to pay for all the support. Placing them in homes isn't a bad thing at all.

It absolutely isn't just about money, it's a demographic bloody nightmare on the near horizon.

And whilst care-work is very valuable and worthwhile, it isn't 'productive', we still need people to drive public transport, manufacture food, keep the lights on and the sewage system working. It's not possible to actually provide enough people to give high levels of care to all those who need it.

As I said, I don't have an answer though!

I was saying this exact thing to my sister last week. A central hotel with rooms anda restaurant for those that need to travel. They could have a room whenever they needed it. Save all that funding for second homes that are then sold for a profit at the tax payers expense.

If they don’t want to live in a home it is absolutely a bad thing.

What if you were suddenly made disabled and told you had to live in a home rather than in your house, perhaps with your husband and kids because it was too expensive to keep you there? I think you might object.

Some of the attitudes on here disgust me.

That was me. And they won’t. We have that conversation frequently (& I work for them). They have always prioritised people not profit. Unusual but not that unusual amongst the very small providers tbh. There just aren’t that many smaller providers because it is harder to balance the books.

The other options some families take is to run their own packages. If something horrendous happened to my son’s package I’d do that now.

oh fuck. Im sorry that Im really out of the loop. apologies

What about the disabled person's job? What about their lovers/partners/spouses? Their children? What about their friends? What about their links to their community? Their social life? You think it is OK to take all that away and put a disabled person in a home that might be miles away from the place they currently live in?

And as I said earlier, do that to my son and I c. Guarantee he’ll be in a hospital within a month (probably within a week) at 15k a week for the NHS (all 15k going to a private company). Kerching.

I hope you're right. I dont think you will be although it might be some years from now that it takes place.

Look at what has happened to many care provisions/fostering provisions, all boasting about their 'family owned' creditials, bigging up that they are small and not about the profit. You know already why there arent small providers very often, it is harder to make it work financially.

They sell up in the end to big organisations that are buying up small enterprises.

My son ended up 8 hours drive from us. 8 fucking hours for an 18 year old who was used to seeing me every day and had never been away from me for more than 2 days before. Moved with 3 hours notice.

And no he wasn’t okay.

I am so sorry. Your poor son.

Some people will think it's all a-OK though. Because 13 years of ableist rhetoric has worked and they see disabled people as lesser beings.

Yep my son is lucky. Having the same team in the way he does with no staff turnover for over a year is also unusual. Having directors with values is unusual. Never using agency is almost unheard of. Which is why they are outstanding and why I feel my son is secure.

My son was with a smaller company (way larger than his current one) that was sold and he ended up booted out and in a hospital far from home as a result. I’m not naive - we’ve lived through it, but that’s why I insisted on this company and not the ones social services wanted us to go with.

Those who think it's ok for disabled people to be sent into homes because it's a cheaper?

Would you be happy for all people on benefits to be sent to homes - I am sure we could slash the need for housing benefit for so many people if we just give them a room in a home , and they wouldn't need to worry about managing their money as we'd feed them healthy food so we wouldn't need to give them anything

What are your limits for supporting people as opposed to sending them to the workhouse /poorrhouse ?

Or is it just disabled people who shouldn't aspire to their own home ?

If we're happy to chuck the elderly in homes, why not the disabled?

Genuine question: it's humane or it's not.

How do you know that? I have a disability. I fund my own home, pay my own bills and pay a hell of a lot of taxes. And that is after decades of paying my taxes too.

Being "important, valued and active" is also about having your human rights respected, and about having choice. It would probably be cheaper and more cost effective to put all you able-bodied people in blocks of flats, whether you want to go or not, then there wouldn't be all that buggering about satisfying the demands for council services from home-owners who think their personal bins should be collected or their streets swept etc.

Warehousing is EXACTLY what is being proposed, and it is disgusting. It'll be camps next.... now who was the last person who thought of that solution?

No, of course it's not okay, but the average stay for elderly people is around two years. Disabled people could be there for 20, 30, 40+ years.