Panorama - Failings in care system

[WillyBumBalls]

Just wondered if anyone else is watching this.

I used to work in a care setting where the staff were not great and given all the publicity thought I'd watch this.

Dpac says it well here
disabled people shouldnt be in locked 'institutions'. Thats where abuse has always flourished. Support to live in and take part in the community. And support means that, not abandonment.

Riven I mentioned institutions because the people I supported used to live in them. Just in case I have been misunderstood - I believe wholeheartedly in care in the community and promotion of independence. I was merely pointing out how sad it was that some of those adults who left institutions after living there since childhood didn't get to maintain reltionships with their peers - because when they got transferred some of that stuff wasn't written down, and they weren't able to communicate it.

I have always felt that in LD, it was the staff who missed the institutions rather than the people.

In a similar vein, I do moving and handling and when hoisting a person for the first time, the staff often say "they won't like it" but even with really challenging behaviour I've never had a problem. It's all about training, skills and knowledge.

Just to clarify - again, I didn't say that I felt that the people missed the institutions. I said that some of them didn't get to see their friends ever again when they got moved out. That is all. I am not 'bigging up' institutions and have never worked in one. I have taken thread off on a tangent anyway, my apologies.

Give me 3.5k a week and i will care for dd when she is adult and she will have a brilliant life. Oh wait, no private company will make huge profits on tax payers expense....

There are companies out there, like the one I worked for, that are not for profit organisations, like this one Riven.

We had family members round for tea, they used to take their relatives out regularly (when they were involved - some of them had no living relatives as they were quite old themselves, and had lived most of their lives in the institutions), they could turn up unannounced anytime.

I was one of those people you saw in Tescos supporting someone doing their shopping for 5 years Riven. And I gladly outstared anyone who 'tutted' or tried to stop the people I supported to exercise their rights. But I have to say, in that 5 years, even with the most challenging of the people I supported, hostility from the public was very rare.

Riven set up your own company - it can be called Riven Holdings Inc. and provide care for up to ONE person. You will of course guarantee individualised and theraputic care based upon your knowledge of the resident you care for.

Oh wait.... they wouldn't allow that would they? No far easier to send the resident in question to the likes of Winterbourne and pay extra for someone else to do the care while lining the pockets of a company paying lip service to care.

I know not all places are like this but sadly having experienced the witnessing of such "care" - read abuse (the reporting of which led to me being escorted off the grounds of the hospital for my own safety) some 25 years ago I am not convinced that it's been erased. Sadly I think in some places it's probably endemic.

MadamBoo you have just inspired me to apply for a job with the company. Relief work during the school holidays possibly.

Oh Dilly :( - did anything happen afterwards or was it just ignored? It's shit that it takes an undercover reporter to expose such things after that nurse had mentioned their concerns 3 times. And the care commission will probably go back to being shite again after all the fuss dies down.

What makes me really is that they used to make reccomendations about things like changing the type of bin we used after an inspection - and we'd all jump and panic and make sure it got done -and yet they'd be letting abuse like this pass by unchecked under their noses at other places? It beggars belief - and yes, I probably was misguided, because I worked for a reputable company I thought they were all like that.

Oh he was sacked - for a long while I was "that student who got Ron suspended" and then I was "that student who got Ron sacked" I am pleased to say. It's the whole system which is rotton though, there HAVE been improvements and the huge hospitals which used to exist are gone but there's still far too much institutionalised care for my liking.

I was thinking about doing that too Dilly - relief work is nice because you don't get sucked into arguments about cleaning in team meetings (which is the only thing we ever fell out about in our staff team!).

Why cant it all be like madameboos example? Because its all about making money, not delivering care.