There are 2 comments on “Listen to debate from Caring Choices London”

1. Margaret Dangoor, Chair, Rich & Twick PCT PPIF says:
   November 23rd, 2007 at 10:37 pm

   I found the presentations generally ‘thin’ of content; stating the usual message of carers needing more support; not much concrete about funding, excepting the idea of shared care. I find the mantra of community care being the ideal frustrating. Through choice (my mother wanted to stay in her own neighbourhood and did not like living on her own when my father died) my mother chose a nursing home when she was already suffering from dementia. Her physical health improved and although her dementia has slowly progressed she has now been in the home where she is happy for seven years! (97 next wk and self-funding). My husband also has dementia and I care for him. He talks about feeling safe, he states that if anything happened to me he would want to go into my mother’s care home (we visit every week and he feels at home there). I feel as someone who has worked in the healthcare environment for 50 yrs that it is quite unacceptable to suggest that elderly confused, demented people are best kept in their own homes. Confusion causes fear apart from anything else; social care will always be intermittent. What I would like is a mid-way stage. I would like to be able to book my husband in to a care home for the day on a paying, booked day care basis, to suit our care needs whether it be from 8am to 8pm or just for a morning or afternoon. There appears to be no imaginative thinking. Day care provision is just not flexible enough to meet the ‘patient’ and carers needs. It is not an either/or situation. Flexible day care (self-funded if appropriate) would allow carers to carry on with their diverse responsibilities, whether it is employment or other commitments. What is needed is for the policy developers to think ‘out of the box’. As a professional myself I find professionals and politicians etc., follow ‘fashions and trends’; these are often proved to be not fit for purpose, inappropriate and even undesirable (think back to the move to mixed wards in the early 80’s and thinking now). These fashions and trends supported by sometimes dubious research are often influenced by financial expediency. Those requiring support and care and their carers are individuals, DO NOT THINK OF CARERS AS A CLASS OF THEIR OWN. THEY ARE ‘NORMAL’ PEOPLE STRUGGLING TO SUPPORT THOSE THEY LOVE BUT CARING IS ONLY ONE OF THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES. I have been a carer for the whole of my adult life in one way or another. I do not see this ending until I am in a position where I will become one of the cared for. I am one of an army of participators, I still am in employment (68 yrs) and am involved at both national and local level in the health and social care environment. I think I hear what people need; shared responsibility and flexibility of support to meet individual need.

2. Kathleen S. Hudson, Ph.D., Family Caregiver Specialist, Area Agency on Aging of Northwest Arkansas says:
   January 25th, 2008 at 4:44 pm

   My comment concerns the previous comment. The response of Margaret Dangoor is excellent. This would apply equally well in the U.S. Northwest Arkansas is a major retirement area so we have a large percentage of elderly retirees, most of whom do not return to their home states at the end of life. I believe more options for day care are needed as well as more education for the public to enable them to make wise choices about how to handle caring for a loved one while simultaneously managing to keep some sort of life outside caregiving.

   Adult day care is available through my agency here and is an excellent resource(my own personal favorite)but both my mother and father needed nursing home care at the end of life. Nursing homes are the best choice for some as are assisted living centers for others. One of the prime goals of my everyday work is to help people stay at home if that is their desire. No one thing is right for every situation. I think the most important thing is to have many options available and more public funding to ease the caregiver’s burden.