Care - what do you think?

[LanaorAna2]

Can't take my eyes off the horror and how good Alison Steadman is. So authentic.

I’m watching too. The subtitles explaining what she’s trying to communicate are breaking my heart.

I loved 'Sausage!' when she meant pig. I'm soooo glad someone's finally outed how horrible people lives are when they get to this stage. And their families.

And how useless the system is, because it doesn't cater for the mass insane, and how careful everyone else is to be useless too.

I'm also really glad someone's actually said out loud on the BBC that Mum could burn your house down. No one ever tells you dementia patients are dangerous.

It’s truly grim. Great acting though. I love Sheridan Smith and Alison
Htf she can go missing from a home though? My relative is in a care home and it’s so secure.

My mate who worked in a care home (nurse) said one of the reasons that no one is looked after is because the wages are so low you have to do 14 hour shifts to make a 7 hour wage, so the staff are knackered.

The subtitles are breaking my heart too. My DF was like this in the last few weeks of his life in hospital. He also had terminal cancer and the hospital were determined to send him home so my 80yo DM could look after him.

Christ the sister is really selfish

Yes, but only one sibling ever does the care.I just don't know why, but there you are.

same here ineedaholidaynow - my uncle was practically booted out of the Marsden when he was dying, fast, but my aunt refused to look after him. She thought she'd kill him by mistake. They went private at the top of the hospital for the last 10 days.

So true. It’s always one child that takes on the burden. Often due to proximity, but it’s relentless for the person doing the caring.

They eventually agreed he should go into a care home, we asked about continuing healthcare funding, we were told he wasn't that ill, he died that week

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ineedaholidaynow - I am so sorry for you. Best explanation of care funding ever written.

We tried for continuing care for my 98 year old FIL. He had dementia and was bedridden and needed a hoist to get out of bed. He was turned down for continuing care (he died 6 weeks later). He worked full time until gone 70.
My husband fought for for continuing care but he did not say that my FIL was a member of the Labour Party which according to Jimmy McGovern magically makes you eligible for continuing care.

I thought it was well done, excellent acting.

Great that Mary got her place but what about all the others who will get turned down, so, so sad and hopefully brings the current crisis to the attention of those who can do something about it

Fantastic - just two quibbles. One, I’d be amazed if that final care home was only £700 a week and two, I work for a family career support organisation - CHC is often suggested to people when actually there’s zero chance of meeting the criteria; it’s really hard to get. Other than that I thought it was superbly true to life.

I think it's dangerously inaccurate. CHC is not a white knight that gives people access to care they wouldn't otherwise have. The LA could only have asked the family to pay the 300 a week if they could adequately meet Mary's needs elsewhere. If that is the case then CHC will also say the same thing, the only difference is Mary wouldn't have to pay anything toward the cost of her care, the level of care would be identical.

Why was home with more support never explored? Night sits and day centres may have been an option if Janet wanted to care for Mary.

My head is about to explode from how inaccurate it all was.

Fabulous acting. Sheridan Smith never disappoints me. She’s incredible

Oh and under the new guidance Mary wouldn't have had a CHC assessment in hospital anyway.

Yes - home support was a glaring gap in this tale - and you can have continuing care funding for someone being cared for at home as well as in a residential or nursing home. The assessment is based on need, and not on the place where the care is taking place.

The assessment of need form can be downloaded - which is what I did with my father - and you can go through the form yourself and make your own assessment based on your knowledge of need. When the assessment is made you can take this along and argue each criterion and compare your assessment with theirs. Check out caretobedifferent.co.uk/how-to-prepare-for-a-nhs-continuing-care-assessment-15-top-tips/

The play was accurate in that most of the time relatives have no idea that a continuing care assessment exists as a proposition or has been carried out. Many of those making the assessment have not been trained in its use and get it wrong.

The only way to cut through this is to actually go armed with knowledge - they back down very fast as soon as they realise you know what you are talking about.

I got continuing care funding for my father to be cared for at home.

The poster saying £700 is a snip is of course entirely correct! That figure is somewhat out of date.

The other point of course is that if everyone entitled to this funding actually got it then the NHS would be bankrupt in a blink.

Yes £700 really is at the absolute bottom of the cost scale for homes, so that really gave a false impression

Continuing care is not transparent. It is discretionary. It depends on the local authority. The social workers were completely supportive in the case of my FIL but you are comparing seriously ill people with other seriously ill people to decide who is most deserving. It is hugely unfair. There are no where near enough resources to go round.
My FIL, self funded in a care home that was mainly used by the local authority. The LA paid for those who had no savings. They also had social workers who regularly visited. The local authority funded residents were the VIPs because the care home needed the LA to use the home and fund most places. Privately funded residents, paid for by the sales of their homes, don't have the same status.
The whole system is broken. It is utterly unfair and discretionary. Need does not come into it. It is hard not to feel bitter and angry.
There should be more funding but I am just watching a news story about homelessness. Ditto those people who have serious disability.
The number of old people with dementia is set to rise significantly over the next few years as we increasingly become a top heavy population in terms of the elderly outnumbering the young. Who will pay for care?

The other point of course is that if everyone entitled to this funding actually got it then the NHS would be bankrupt in a blink

The funding was a red herring.

Social services have a statutory obligation to meet need too, they can ask for a contribution based on income, savings and assets but they can't make it prohibitively expensive.

If the first crappy care home was able to meet Mary's assessed needs then that's where CHC would offer.

The good thing about this is that LA's will be more likely to accept requests for continuing care. The bad thing is the NHS will either go bankrupt or will have to starve other areas of care to fund this. Proper funding for the million or so people with dementia will cost billions. I wonder if the general public will be prepared to priority fund this over other areas.
I thought the programme was inaccurate and romanticised the issue. It seemed to imply that if you were the right kind of person (Labour party voter) you should get that care ahead of others. It was patronising and ill informed.

Care homes in London are £3,000 a week.

You can send five to kids to Eton every year for the cost of keeping Granny in a home.

The good thing about this is that LA's will be more likely to accept requests for continuing care

The LA's don't do this, it's the CCG. The LA's love CHC because every CHC funding person is one less LA one.