There was an extraordinary dignity about Sally Lubanov, the 83-year-old housebound woman who told several million radio listeners this week that she hadn\u2019t been able to take a bath for three years and whose carers aren\u2019t allowed to cut her toenails.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019d like to make it clear I\u2019m in no way complaining about my own circumstances,\u201d she said very firmly.<\/p>\n
What she was complaining about was a system which means that carers spend the first ten minutes of a half-hour visit booking in, checking what the previous carer had done and kitting themselves out. That left just 10 minutes to do the actual job before embarking on 10 minutes of exit duties.<\/p>\n
Mrs Lubanov is one of the lucky ones. She has switched from short daily appointments to fewer longer appointments to ensure that things get done. But those who are more infirm, and who need help with washing, dressing or going to the toilet, do not have such flexibility.<\/p>\n
The Leonard Cheshire charity reports that 15 minute care-slots are now routine in two-thirds of local authorities. In some councils more than 75 per cent of care visits are carried out in less than 15 minutes. \u201cWhat I\u2019d like most,\u201d Sally Lubanov told Today<\/i> on Radio 4, \u201cwould be for someone to have time to have a chat, to cook a hot meal and sit down and have it with [me], for someone to take me shopping.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her interviewer, John Humphrys, was suitably outraged by the shortcomings of the system. But he failed to understand that what the 83-year-old wanted most was not practical care but human interaction.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019d like to talk to you for hours but\u2026\u201d he said to her, unwittingly exemplifying the problem.<\/p>\n
His next interviewee, the Care Minister, Norman Lamb, understood. The key thing the old lady had craved, he noted, was \u201ccompanionship, contact with other human beings\u2026 there is nothing worse than loneliness and isolation\u201d. But Mr Humphrys interrupted with a litany of practical tasks \u2013 having a bath, getting the bed sheets changed, having her toenails cut \u2013 which the state had the obligation to provide.<\/p>\n
Neither man offered the solution. The interviewer\u2019s calculus was purely utilitarian. But practical tasks are more than fulfilment of need. They are a manifestation that someone cares. The minister acknowledged that, and said the answer lay in a richer collaboration between local volunteers and statutory authorities. But he failed to accept even that will cost more than he is prepared to allocate.<\/p>\n
A former care-worker laid bare the truth next day, explaining why she had quit the job. Her problem was that she cared too much. She was constantly in trouble from her employers for spending too long with her elderly clients. \u201cWhat is a carer to do on arriving for a 15-minute call to find the client soiled, confused and extremely distraught?\u201d she asked. \u201cAdminister the medication as instructed, or to clean and change the client, or to make a hot drink and try to calm and reassure the client? All three in my book, but the present times do not allow for this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0The plain fact is that the contractors employed by many councils give their staff unrealistic schedules.\u00a0 They do that because the Government allocates unrealistic budgets to the job.\u00a0 Everyone colludes in this cowardly strategy because it enables them to shift the blame to someone else.\u00a0 The harsh reality is that the authorities have to drop some individuals from the care list, which would cause them political problems. Or allocate more money, which would cause financial ones.\u00a0 With an increasingly ageing population our politicians cannot continue this dissembling.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
The Church Times<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There was an extraordinary dignity about Sally Lubanov, the 83-year-old housebound woman who told several million radio listeners this week that she hadn\u2019t been able to take a bath for three years and whose carers aren\u2019t allowed to cut her toenails.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019d like to make it clear I\u2019m in no way complaining about my own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[671,358,672],"class_list":["post-8148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-society","tag-carers","tag-elderly","tag-local-authorities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8148"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8200,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8148\/revisions\/8200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}