GrumbleSmiles

“Elderly No-care Costs 1”

Posted on December 5, 2014 by john graham

This is the start of a series of blogs which will cover the financial cost of providing for oneself in later life, including the cost of care should you need it.

As we move closer to the next General Election in 2015, the politicians start to test the water of what might appeal to the electorate and what would upset them. Think tank reports are a way of starting this process and then being able to distance yourself from ideas that don’t curry favour.

The Baker Report on how to pay for long-term care of the elderly has a chocolate box selection of things elderly voters will like and dislike in equal measure. The overall aim of the report is laudable in that it sets out to end the inequalities of funding the care system, in which some elderly people have their long-term care costs met but most do not, particularly those with dementia.

I think this was wishful thinking from the start and another example of raising false hopes. The Government estimates that the current annual no-care budget of £6 billion will increase to £9 billion by 2025.

Providing free no-care would double this to £20 billion by 2025. So that guarantees it won’t happen. There is no going back to free care, when care was never free for those who could afford to pay.

The illusion of free care only persists because no Government wants to face the elderly and tell them that they will have to pay the cost of long-term care themselves, if they want a quality care service.

Posted in ELDERLY UK POLICY, Residential Care | 1 Comment

N.H.S. Golden Goodbyes

Posted on November 20, 2014 by john graham

Once again the elderly are being cast as a problem to the NHS. The trouble is they will keep getting ill !

The Health Service chief Sir Bruce Keogh has been talking in the last few day about the problem of bed blocking. During September there were over 1,000 patients, most of whom were elderly, who were unable to be discharged because of lack of social care at home.

This is estimated to cost the NHS £34,ooo,ooo a month !

So here is my simple solution :-

An NHS GOLDEN GOODBYE

£34 million divided among 1000 patients, who are probably as keen to leave as the hospital managers are to get rid of them, would amount to £1,133 each.

If they went home and paid a carer £10 an hour, they could buy themselves 113 hours of care — at say 4 hours a day that would give them enough for paid support for a month. Rather more than the 15 minute visits they might get from Social Services.

Alternatively, they could check into a budget hotel for a week, have a private room with en suite bathroom/shower, a colour TV and room service meals. After their illness that should put a smile on their face 🙂

The even more adventurous ex-patient could be dropped off at the local airport in the ambulance and with their £1133 NHS Golden Goodbye money they could buy an Easyjet ticket to Spain and have two week all found winter break on the Costa Del Sol.

The overnight benefit to the NHS would be 1,000 beds at no extra capital cost — and— shorter waiting lists.

Posted in N.H.S., SMILES | 5 Comments

“Final Swiss Tour”

Posted on November 5, 2014 by john graham

Switzerland is a wonderful place to visit, the scenery is fantastic, but if you go on a Warner’s Coach Tour, be very careful where you get off.

Researchers at the University of Zurich found that the number of people travelling to Switzerland to die, because of their lax laws on assisted suicide, have doubled in the years between 2008 and 2012. During that time 611 people travelled there with a one way ticket.

If the tour bus stops at the Dignitas Clinic, only get off if you are absolutely sure you know what lies ahead. There are no return tickets from Dignitas.

If Lord Falconer’s Bill in the House of Lords gets approval in Parliament in the next few years, it will not be necessary to travel to Switzerland.

Then free bus passes for older people may take on a whole new meaning in Britain.

(For other blogs on this subject, look at Assisted Suicide in the TAG CLOUD).

Posted in ELDERLY UK POLICY | Tagged assisted suicide | 3 Comments

“Failure to adapt”

Posted on November 4, 2014 by john graham

Some recent work by AGE UK has highlighted the delays elderly people experience in securing aids and adaptations to their homes before they can leave hospital. New figures suggest that some older people can spend a month longer in hospital, while waiting for alterations to be done to accommodate them after they have been discharged.

The extended hospital stay probably costs the NHS at least £6,000, whereas the adaptations can often cost less than £1,500. It seems obvious at the current system should be speeded up.

Shrinking Local Authority budgets, protracted approval processes and lack of co-ordinated, joined up thinking, have been a problem in this area for years and it seems nothing has altered. A radical change in the system is needed.

AGE UK has gone on a tangent and suggested that all new homes should be designed for easy adaptability. There is nothing wrong with this suggestion but only just over 100,000 new homes are built each year and most of them are for families. So in that way the problem may be solved in the next millennia.

Currently only around 3% of homes meet accessibility standards, so a lot of older people will languish in hospital a lot longer unless:-

AGE UK learn to rage about ability aids and adaptations and demand a new system!

Posted in RETIREMENT HOUSING | Tagged Age UK | 5 Comments

“Residential No Care”

Posted on October 30, 2014 by john graham

Around 30 years ago I spoke at Birmingham City Hall at a conference about the future of care homes for older people. I controversially suggested that all residential homes should be shut down within 10 years. I was assailed by the Lady Chairman of the Residential Care Homes Association and received only half hearted support from the then Director of Social Services. Needless to say, nothing came of my radical proposition.

Now my old friend Mr Paul Burstow, former Care Minister until 2012, has suggested in a Demos Report that care homes should be “re-branded as housing with care”, to overcome their poor reputation.

While I am sorry Mr Burstow, changing the name won’t change the nature.

Boredom and loneliness still typify many residential homes, so does poor care and unqualified staff. Neglect and abuse lie just below the surface – there were 7,654 cases of reported abuse in 2013. How many more examples never get reported for fear of recrimination?

This is nothing new and it is a pity it took a Government Minister responsible for the sector, so long to learn it. It is even more of a shame that he did not feel able to say it until after he stood down as Care Minister.

There are 450,000 older people currently living in residential care homes in this country. Estimates in this Demos Report suggest there will need to be another 239,000 places in full time residential care by 2030.

Yet most elderly people view the prospect of moving into a care home as a last resort. A place to die, not a place to live.

Yes Mr Burstow, the image needs to change, but this will only happen when the reality changes and that requires much more than re-branding.

The system of funding residential care is the fundamental issue, which successive Governments have failed to address. Nor have they been honest with the electorate in saying there is not enough public money to pay for all the residential care. The original Dilnot Report proposals attempted to stimulate new insurance products to cover long-term care costs but the coalition Government, of which Mr Burstow was a member, watered down the proposals and nothing new has come forward.

So, 30 years on from when I suggested abolishing residential care homes, very little has changed, except that we now have many more:-

Posted in Residential Care | 2 Comments

“Heartfelt thanks for neighbours”

Posted on October 28, 2014 by john graham

A study in the USA by a research team at the University of Michigan looked at how people perceived their neighbourhoods in terms of safety and friendliness. They consulted over 5,000 healthy people with an average age of 70, over a four year period.

People who lived in neighbourhoods they rated as friendly, were found to have a 22% reduced risk of having a heart attack. People also felt more secure.

Over the years, many areas have become less hospitable to older people. Families live further apart than they used to. Many of the local shops have closed. The churches are not as full as they used to be. Young people don’t play out on the streets any more. Crime is perceived to be a reason to keep your doors locked during the day and not to go out at night.

If the concept of Age Friendly Cities is to work, then neighbourhood networks need to be re-established. Mutual support is a vital part of the glue that binds neighbourhoods together. It is a significant way of overcoming loneliness and isolation.

This research from America shows that good neighbourhoods can have a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of older people.

Posted in ELDERLY UK POLICY, HEALTH | Tagged "Age Friendly", Cheylesmore Good Neighbours | 1 Comment

“Hang the curtains!”

Posted on October 21, 2014 by john graham

While care of older people in residential care homes languishes in a perilous position – under-funded, staffed largely by unqualified staff and inspected by tick box regulators – the Care Minister, Mr Norman Lamb, has come up with a bold new plan to transform the situation.

Personalise your room with your own furniture!

According to Mr Lamb, this will make residential care a “civilised home from home, and create a real sense of the individual’s home”.

This is such a good idea that it has been taken up by the Daily Mail’s hard hitting “Dignity for the Elderly” campaign. Furthermore the raging champion of older people – AGE UK, is also firmly behind the programme. The iron fist of the Care Quality Commission will be reinforcing Mr Lamb’s limp wrist with a “robust” regime of inspection.

Mr Lamb forgot to mention that you will have to fit all your furniture into a bedroom which is only just big enough for a single bed. So no room for the three piece suite! Oh, and your favourite curtains will need to be treated with fire retardant.

You could of course bring your favourite chair into the communal lounge, although it may look like an auctioneer’s sale room, if all 30 of the other residents, who also live in “your lounge”, want to do the same thing.

Really Mr Lamb, this hardly constitutes a new policy when the residential care sector is so bankrupt of both money and reforming ideas. Your regulator – the Care Quality Commission, is currently suggesting that 750 care homes are failing on at least one basic standard for more than a year – surely furniture can’t be your top priority. Deck chairs being rearranged on the Titanic comes to mind.

The Daily Mail obviously did not want to upset you by telling you this in an undignified way. Even more concerningly, AGE UK have become so diplomatic these days that they seek to accommodate everyone and their furniture. Nobody at AGE UK gets angry anymore, no matter how much older people are patronised by Government Ministers who are supposed to care for them.

Posted in Residential Care | Tagged Age UK, Care Quality Commission, Daily Mail; "Dignity be damned" | 3 Comments

ExtraCare Traditions 4 – Elderflower Festival

Posted on October 16, 2014 by john graham

This gallery contains 12 photos.

THIS IS A CONTINUATION OF A SERIES OF BLOGS OVER THE NEXT FEW MONTHS DESCRIBING SOME OF THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE EXTRACARE CHARITABLE TRUST. THIS WAS THE ORGANISATION I FOUNDED AND WORKED FOR FROM 1987 THROUGH TO THE TIME I … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged "ExtraCare Traditions" | 2 Comments

“Dementia – Bad and Good News”

Posted on October 14, 2014 by john graham

Some interesting research published in The Oxford Post Graduate Medical Journal about the risk of getting dementia.

The bad news is that people who are obese in middle age are 50% more likely to develop dementia in later life. It is a pity no one told me that when I was 30! There again, at that age I barely knew what dementia was and I doubt I would have stopped eating all those pies or having the odd pint or two or three.

The good news in this study is that people in their 70’s were no more likely to develop dementia. So in a few years’ time I can eat all the pies I like. Furthermore, the over 80’s are 20% less likely to develop the disease, so that’s why the pub car parks are full of mobility scooters at lunch time 🙂

(For other more serious posts on this subject, click on Dementia in the Topics list).

Posted in Dementia | 1 Comment

ExtraCare Traditions 3 – Sports Day

Posted on October 12, 2014 by john graham

THIS IS PART OF WHAT WILL BE A SERIES OF BLOGS OVER THE NEXT FEW MONTHS DESCRIBING SOME OF THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE EXTRACARE CHARITABLE TRUST. THIS WAS THE ORGANISATION I FOUNDED AND WORKED FOR FROM 1987 THROUGH TO THE TIME I RETIRED IN 2010. I HOPE IT WILL INSPIRE OTHERS TO LOOK AT NEW WAYS OF LIVING IN LATER LIFE.

For other blogs in this series, click on “ExtraCare Traditions” in the TAG CLOUD

In 1992 the Olympics were held in Barcelona and in The ExtraCare Charitable Trust we decided to have our own version of the games for the residents of our nursing homes and the extracare housing schemes. This was our first “Sports Day” which was held at Ernesford Grange Leisure Centre in Coventry. Several hundred residents attended, wheelchairs, zimmer frames and all. There weren’t any Paralympics at the time, otherwise I am sure some of our residents would have wished to compete in them.

The games we selected were designed to enable all residents to be able to take part. Table skittles was one of the easiest challenges but we also had a wheelchair obstacle course, a mobile scooter driving experience, netball, football, archery and climbing. A sort of schools sports day for grans and granddads.

The biggest challenge was skiing with Eddie the Eagle Edwards, which on the day we did on a snowboard which an artificial ski slope. It was a particularly hard challenge, especially for some of the more disabled residents but Eddie Edwards was a great coach and encouraged many residents to have a go. In the years ahead we used many TV and Sports personalities to add to the glamour of the events we held.

We also continued with many of the sports we started and below is a resident on a dry ski slope at the Ackers Trust in Birmingham.

After this first sports day we set up “Activity Captains” in each of our schemes and the promotion of a whole variety of sports created a whole range of opportunities for our residents. They became more and more adventurous as time went on and included:-

CLAY PIGEON SHOOTING ARCHERY SNOOKER BOWLS

SAILING, FIRSTLY ON LOCAL LAKES AND LATER ON A TALL SHIP ACROSS THE CHANNEL AND IN SAILING BOATS IN GREECE

WALKING THE PENINE WAY AND LATER ON THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

CYCLING FROM LANDS END TO JOHN O’GROATS (IN THE FITNESS CENTRES)

CLIMBING ON LEISURE CENTRE CLIMBING WALLS AND LATER RISING TO THE THREE PEAKS CHALLENGE

THE PHOTOGRAPH BELOW IS RATHER MORE SEDATE BUT JUST AS EXCITING. A GROUP OF RESIDENTS TROUT FISHING ON THE LAKES AT COOMBE ABBEY IN COVENTRY.

In 2006 our sporting ambitions culminated in us sending 10 residents to Melbourne in Australia to attend the Commonwealth Games. This time they were just spectators but courtesy of a contact we had with the Welsh athlete Alan Pascoe, and also our long standing association with Geoff Capes, our residents were able to attend a BBC reception and meet many famous athletes at the time.

WE NEVER DID THINGS BY HALVES IN EXTRACARE !

Posted in SMILES | Tagged "ExtraCare Traditions" | 2 Comments