Social Care across Counties

I first started having carers in 2016 and back then it was one call a day, and that was first thing in the morning to help me shower and dress. In 2017 I was admitted to hospital for ten days with frozen shoulders. To get me out of hospital they packed me off with a bucket full of drugs to help with the pain and spasms. It was then that I was introduced to the world of hoists

 

Sadly a couple of months down the line and several visits from the district nurse, they discovered my pressure ulcer on my left ischium. My life became full of visits from either my carers or the district nurses, as my pressure ulcer was a grade four and went right down to the hip bone, and soon became known as Pesky Ursula. Easter arrived and so did time for hot cross buns and Easter eggs. The care company at the time explained to me that gifts could only be exchanged as long as they weren’t over £5, otherwise they needed to be declared. So when I got invited to my carers wedding and she gave me one of her old dresses I needed to let the care company know. Their words to me were “oh Julie, how lovely that Rashda asked you, we are hardly going to object”.

 

Unfortunately the care company folded and my social worker had to find me another care company. The next one was a little inexperienced, the management had a lot to learn, but the carers were brilliant. It was a relatively new company and they were yet to be inspected by the CQC. When the weeks came for the inspection they were rated as unsatisfactory, and once again my social worker insisted I changed care company’s.

 

The next company I was with until I moved to Hayling Island. They were brilliant and my carers were employed to work either the morning or from tea time, and therefore weren’t run off their feet. I take my hat off too them as they soon adapted to life with Covid-19, and working with PPE became second nature.

The last two years of us living in Buckinghamshire also meant I had a PA. Bucks provided me with 32 hours a week, which of course meant hubby could carry on his work as a self-employed technical lift engineer. My PAs didn’t just sit with me, we developed a real friendship, often going out and about. Life pre Covid meant we were regularly going to the CMCS to play Boccia (oh how I miss those days). At the beginning of January 2020 I was in hospital for three weeks and through that time my PAs came and sat with me in hospital. 

 

Fast forward to December 2020 and we moved to the lovely Hayling Island, and I now come under Hampshire. Oh how naïve I am, I’ve only ever experienced adult social care in Buckinghamshire, and I just assumed that although different counties will have challenging budgets everything else would be the same. The one thing that is definitely the same is I have wonderful carers, but sadly the management lets them down. I am shocked. It has been made clear to me that the carers and I cannot chat about daily life, “they are there to care for me and not to tell me about their children”. I have managed my MS for 22 years by being an open and strong person, but just this week I telephoned the office to raise my concern about carers riding their push bikes in 60mph wind, as I considered it dangerous, I got told to mind my own business and all I should be worried about was whether they were good carers for me. Then I put down the phone and burst into tears, surely they should be pleased I was making them aware of the situation, but no. I later found out that one of the girls also rang up and said it is far to dangerous for us to be riding our bikes, can we have a driver. I couldn’t believe that she was accused of getting me to ring up and complain. I am so angry.

With regards to getting a PA, Hampshire have only allocated me 12 hours a week. I have been told that I should not expect a like for like package. Meanwhile, hubby is not able to work as much or he has to ask my sister to come round and be my PA, but if she does that she is not there for my 95 year old father. So what do Hampshire county council want? She is providing care for my father so there is no cost to them there. Is it not about time that the adult social care budget is properly funded?
While the company are recruiting for a PA for me, I have these two lovely ladies as my temporary PA.

I do realise that we are not living in “normal” times, but really, Behaviour breeds Behaviour, life is stressful but let’s add a large dosage of kindness and I’m sure we will all be better off for it.