why do we treat people this way

[emmie]

having witnessed the levels of care, or should one say lack of care, why does this happen in our society. And as some have pointed out on AB, we seem to feel more for pets, animals, than our elderly folk.

http://www.telegraph....ers-says-inquiry.html

[Ankou]

i am currently working on a new spangle fangled care home, all-in development costs are about £55k per room (with en-suite). add that to the running and staffing, they've gotta make it back somehow, paying the least amount of wages would be one way i suppose.

or they could just knockabout a crappy block of ex-council flats and bung em in there on the cheap.....?

[emmie]

zeuhl, have you ever visited a care home, find a staff member that has a degree of sense, compassion first off. Take a look at the meals, not just in care homes but in hospital, it's often appalling. I sat with my mum whilst she was in hospital, to make sure that she was getting looked after, and can honestly say that the care side was virtually non existent, just another old person, shunted in, and out. If family hadn't been able to visit, like many elderly folk, then who knows what might have happened. I don't think that council care homes are run any better than private ones. There are some good ones, but sorry my feeling is that the bad are way in front. Untrained staff put the elderly at risk, and as one young woman on a programme last evening stated, they got a weeks training, and then considered ready to work.

[emmie]

ummm, begs the questions, how does he do it, pay that amount.

[LazyGun]

There is an element of postcode lottery to this as well. My father has recently been through the hospital process, having fallen and sustained a neck of femur fracture. Additional complications upon admission made him a demanding patient, but the staff on the ward, from the orthopoedic team to the HCAs seemed to do an excellent job - caring, enthused, energetic. And since his return home, the package organised by the social services team of a carer once a day to aid in dressing and ablutions in the morning has been excellent.

Then you get to read all the stories, both in the report, and the newspapers, of elderly patients being ignored or abused; of "carers" stealing from them, of being rude or unhelpful, and you have to conclude that if you get a great service you are probably one of the lucky minority.

So, greater regulation is an absolute must. Proper training and certification for home carers, a criminal records check etc. More time per visit. Probably a wage paying a little better than the minimum wage might help, but the most important factor-a carers compassion or empathy- is inherent, not something that can be trained.We also need to recognise, as a society, that all this needs to be paid for, and not just trying to scrape by with the cheapest tender or the lowest minimum wage offer - so how should it be funded? Higher general taxation? a hypothecated tax? Compulsory insurance plans? However unpalatable, some system needs to be adopted that allows for better than we currently have.

A society is judged by how it treats it weakest and most disadvantaged. Our society has fallen behind in our treatment of some of the most vulnerable, the infirm elderly. I also think that we as a society need to recognise that with medical advances, better food and living conditions comes the benefit of a longer life, but that the downside is that many of us will probably have need of some form of assisted care for part of our lives in the future - and that we all need to decide how that is to be paid for.

[emmie]

LG, i agree with all you say, but for the time being, until that can be put into place, or a better plan of care for the elderly, what do we do.

[Ankou]

we rely on the private sector to build and provide new all singing all dancing modern care home facilities and then claw their money back through grants and charges.

[emmie]

RSPCA, but there is no charity as such for the elderly, at least not like RSPCA or NSPCC

[Zeuhl]

em

Don't tell Age UK or Help the Aged that

[emmie]

zeuhl, they are one charity now. And having asked for help for someone from them, i do know who they are, and no they weren't able to help. It just seems to me we put animals, before people. And care in Britain is just not good enough.

[Zeuhl]

Personally I prefer animals to most people.

Animals and Children both score highly with the 'innocence factor'.
Old people don't.

[bednobs]

i haven't read all the answers but my take on it is that we simply doin't pay people enough to do this job

[Zeuhl]

True.

More worrying is the economic reality that with many more people living further and further beyond their economically productive stage, how does a society fund their care?

If it's bad now, what will it be like when there are only two tax payers for every retired person?

[emmie]

we are not just talking about care, but treating the elderly harshly, or with outright abuse.

[naomi24]

You can't pay a person to 'care'. People are either caring or they're not - and unfortunately many are not. The way our elderly are treated is sickening.

[Zeuhl]

True

No excuse for that.

[RATTER15]

Naomi, you hit the nail on the head!!

>>>You can't pay a person to 'care'. People are either caring or they're not - and unfortunately many are not. The way our elderly are treated is sickening.<<<

A favourite saying of mine is " some carers care for, good carers care about" that sums it all up for me.

The problem is with many excellent carers that I have known, is they just cannot survive on minimum wage and have had to leave the profession.

[samuelcat]

I work as a home carer. There have been some pretty damning statements written on here and other sites about carers so heres my view.
I had two in depth interviews. A CRB check. I had to provide several referees of which the company chose who to ask for a reference. Two weeks classroom training where we had to learn the rules and regulations. and believe me there is a lot. Then one month out in the field shadow training. We have regular compulsary refresher training. We have to keep full written records of care given along with meds records and concerns.All these are legal documents and can be produced in court. We have on the spot visits from a superviser who can turn up at a service users home unnanounced to oversee the visit.
I start at 7.30 am and finish at 6pm with a 45 min break in the morning and afternoon. I work every other weekend.I work a 12 day rota before my weekend off. Just 2 days off in 14.I work bank holidays with no extra pay. I will again this year be working on Christmas day and boxing day. And I do all this for £6.80 an hour and £8 on weekends. And I do it all on my bicycle covering about 25 miles a day. And why do I do it. Because I love my job. Its hard,sometimes thankless but can be very rewarding. Its also very distressing after having several people die,some in my presence and certainly not through lack of care.
Its a shame that so much coverage has been given to a small number of people in a huge industry of well trained caring people

[bednobs]

i agree that you can't pay people to learn to "care" but while people are getting minimum wage to do it, you can bet not many people like samuelcat would

[RATTER15]

samuelcat, the company you work for is therefore in the minority. I know quite a few carers that work for different companies, they get 5 days training on the job and that's the lot, some get manual handling training, some get first aid training. I have never known a care agency to provide the level of training that you detail. Good for you :)