Care Homes: A System in Crisis (UK)

In October, we reported that Britain's 13,900 care homes are to face a new complaints system and tougher inspections. After a huge response from our readers, The Times launches a three-part series on the state of nursing homes

From The Times

January 14, 2009

 A faded hand-tinted wedding photograph and a painted porcelain plate are all that remain to remind George of the life he once had. The plate, hanging above his bed in a Cornish nursing home, depicts a farmer silhouetted by the setting sun guiding his plough behind two giant shire horses. 

That is how George's son Martin, one of many Times readers who contacted us about care homes, likes to remember his father. George is now in his nineties and lying in a cot motionless, his mouth open to reveal a few remaining teeth - as helpless as a severely disabled child. 

George is one of more than 440,000 elderly people living in “God's waiting room”. And it is becoming increasingly crowded. This year one person in three among the population will reach 50 and over. By 2051 the over-85s will reach four million, so a nursing home will be the ultimate destination for many more of us. 

Charities insist that long-term care must become fairer and that elderly people should not be penalised by saving throughout their lives, only for it to be snatched away in old age. In the spring the Government will publish a Green Paper on long-term care for the elderly, which will look at how to make it more accessible and equitable. 

Meanwhile, families and the elderly - many of whom are often suffering from dementia and have to pay for their care, the so-called self-funders - are battling against boredom, crippling fees, overworked staff and dirty rooms. And they have no system of redress - they have become a generation that society has forgotten. 

Martin is one of the few who can hold a conversation with his father. Many of the staff are foreign-born and struggle to understand the elderly, let alone one recovering from a stroke. Once Martin, who is divorced, hoped that his father would be able to leave the home and return to the bungalow that they had shared. But he sees no prospect of that without therapy, which the home seems unable to provide. 

Even well-run homes have difficulty providing more than basic care. Alison's father Edward has been in a nursing home since suffering a stroke, but instead of helping him to get better, staff have little time to do more than ensure that he is fed and given something to drink. 

the elderly have little pulling power with politicians, so for years these pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Now the Government is promising that a new system will mean at least that everyone will be entitled to an assessment of need, proper advice and information about residential care options and legal protection for appeals, even if they have to pay for the care themselves. That way no council will be allowed to abandon those living in its region as soon as they find out that their savings are above the minimum threshold, as local authorities frequently do at the moment. 

However, it will be a steep mountain to climb. Charities describe the care system as being in “crisis” and one that will be dealt with head on only when society accepts that the needs of the elderly are as important as those of newborn or disabled children. 

Abridged

SOURCE:    Times Online UK

------------------------------------------------------

Click for Updates, More Cases and Resources