Working as a care worker and our elderly...

[Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow]

There is a very depressing article in the DM about a chap who worked undercover as care worker. You can imagine it - zero hours contracts, very low pay, not paid for travelling so very little time to spend with clients etc. Due to rush there was no proper time to dispense medicines.

When did we decide our elderly people are worth so little? Who thought it was a good idea for care companies to be owned by hedge funds. Without wanting to sound like a communist, privatisation has killed many aspects of our society.

Some people are getting very rich whilst the workers are shafted and the old and infirm are tossed aside.

I think it is to do with the sheer number of elderly people. I’m not saying that it makes it right but it’s never been a well paid area of work and as elderly people have increased in number and in the complexity of their needs, meeting these needs has become evermore demanding. I don’t think it’s as simple as deciding they are worth very little, in other words, it’s supply and demand.

We should be treating workers who care - be they teachers or nurses or the lowly care worker - with respect and reasonable pay.

Our society has it completely wrong

Well, I don’t think we can compare teachers and nurses to care workers in terms of pay, to be honest. That’s not to say I don’t think the former deserve more but they have contracted hours, they have pensions, can obtain mortgages, sick pay and so on.

Care workers are almost exclusively on zero hours and cannot. They are also mostly on minimim wage.

I wasn’t really - I am holding up a whole category if wirk that I think is generally in crisis through the similar underlying problems. These are people who do jobs worthy of our respect.

It's an indictment of our society that we collectively care so little for the most vulnerable. The terrible irony is that all of us could be in a position to need care one day, sooner or later.

Nursing was originally treated as a calling and paid poorly.

The elderly don’t want to pay even if they can ime. Some could draw down on the value of their properties and pay for private care but ime don’t do that. The bill for care is too high for the rest of us to foot. If you think that 24 hr care could be paying 3 carers say 30,000 a year ais a decent wage so 90,000 pa over maybe 10 years. 900,000. And that is one customer.

Well, yes, they do, but the pertinent question is always going to be who pays for it

There aren’t any easy answers.