I do need support and I need it now
Buddha Jane
In the last couple of weeks, social care has been getting rare media attention and not just from the left-leaning broadsheets, all across the spectrum.
During the festive period, there were reports, such as this one in the Guardian of rising costs for care services and a postcode lottery of charges. Following on from these reports, an open letter in the Telegraph signed by over 60 organisations and experts highlighted the crisis in the current social care system and called on politicians of all persuasions to work together to reform the system. This led to a flurry of articles in papers from the Guardian to the Daily Mail.
The Government responded with their now all too familiar mantra that they are providing an additional £7.2bn over 4 years to councils for social care and so there is no need for councils to cut social care services or to increase charges.
What the Government fails to acknowledge is that this £7.2bn is not ring-fenced, meaning that councils can spend it as they choose. Social care generally loses out in favour of quick-fix vote-winners such as weekly bin collections and flowers. The statistics upon which these reports were based clearly show that there is a problem, that social care is in crisis and better, fairer, ring-fenced funding is needed and it’s needed now.
What most of these reports have struggled to make readers understand is that this isn’t just about statistics and amounts of money with numbers that are so large they are hard to comprehend; it’s about real people, real lives being devestated by the loss of services or by unaffordable care bills, and even real lives being lost.
Until March last year, I had a couple of hours support from a communicator-guide every fortnight to help me with reading mail, grocery shopping and social and leisure activities.
I also had regular support from someone in the mental health team who had been trained to communicate effectively with me. My mental health was improving, I was working towards the possibility of one day being able to work part time and I was able to feel that, despite my complete loss of hearing and vision, there were things to live for.
Those services have been taken away. Since last March, apart from a two-week stay with an old musician friend, I have not stepped out of my home and not had any direct human contact. My mental health is much worse again.
I do have the internet and e-friends now, which I didn’t have when I first became deafblind and ended up in hospital with depression and psychosis and attempted suicide. The virtual world of the Internet is a help but it is no substitute for direct human contact. I hope that my isolation won’t push me so low again but, on the basis of some recent bad times, it’s a distinct possibility that it will.
To save themselves the ongoing costs of providing regular social care, my local authority are putting my mental health and life at risk and risking much higher costs of hospitalisation.
The local authority, the government, much of the media and much of society at large seem to fail to understand that providing services such as communicator-guides that enable deafblind people to have human contact and a modest quality of life is a money-saving investment. I might be able to wash and dress myself but that does not mean I need no support. I do need support and I need it now.
Government, however, seem quite happy to expect the likes of me to wait years before we see reform of the social care system. Earlier in December, the Telegraph reported that advisers to Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, have said that it may take until 2025 before reforms are fully implemented. That sort of wait is simply not acceptable.
People’s lives are being ruined and lost now. As people wait, their needs are increasing, the NHS will be picking up the costs of meeting those needs. Reform of social care must be seen as an urgent priority.
I hope that politicians of all persuasions, like the media have in the last couple of weeks, recognise the importance of reforms and do everything possible to fast-track a fairer and more effective social care system.
Buddha Jane writes regularly for Deafblind Interact
Originally published in January 2012
Comments
Virginia Thornton
19 August 2012 - 5:37pm
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That just shows how ridiculous the situation is. Your health is improving so that you are considering working, which would mean you contributing to the economy, paying tax, etc. To save a bit of money now a local authority is putting that at risk, and possibly costing the NHS more money as your health deteriorates. We have to stop this nonsense about not being able to afford things. If we don't choose to fund social care properly, we are racking up long term costs in the NHS. That's the sort of debt the country really can't afford.
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