I'm not sure where to post this really, and I am so mad I am struggling to type!

My mother and father-in-law are both fairly ill, my father in law has dementia, (short term memory loss) and my mother in law has had a number and strokes and according the the social services early signs of Alzheimer's (unconfirmed).

Because Power of Attorney was given to my husband before last year, he does not have it over their welfare apparently, just over their finances, meaning that the social services decide what happens to them and how they live..

They have a fair amount of money in the bank and so pay for their care themselves, which is okay, however the level of care the social services are imposing on them is to say the least ridiculous. They have decided that my mother in law needs full time residential care which we strongly oppose, and as a short term measure they can stay in their house with a 24 hour carer, which we think is not really that necessary, but we can accept. However, the various ad-ons etc that they are coming up with are stupid to say the least. The latest one is a hoist to get my mother in law of of bed! She doesn't need one, we got footage from our wedding nine months ago ball room dancing for over an hour and her level of steadiness has not decreased since then and unsurprisingly there is a cost involved to train the carer.

We don't want to jeopardise their care and obviously want what is best for them, however I doubt all this "necessary" care would have been put in place if they didn't have the money to pay for it? Having paid into they system all their lives and now even paying tax on their savings, their savings are now bein used up on care that they should have paid for...

What sort of legal support could be appoint to oppose the social workers that are making these decisions, though cannot be bothered to attend meetings with us or provide assessments that help them come to these conclusions on care? :mad:
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There are specialist advice agencies that may be able to advise. You could start with Counsel and Care (http://www.counselandcare.org.uk/)

If you haven't looked at it, Age Concern's website (http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/AgeConcern/how_we_help.asp) is also very helpful

Last link - The Princess Royal Trust for Carers (http://www.carers.org/). Again full of helpful advice. Leeds even have their own centre (http://www.carers.org/local/north-east/leeds/) where someone would be happy to chat to you about the problem

Hope this helps BTDTGTTS
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There are specialist advice agencies that may be able to advise. You could start with Counsel and Care (http://www.counselandcare.org.uk/)

If you haven't looked at it, Age Concern's website (http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/AgeConcern/how_we_help.asp) is also very helpful

Last link - The Princess Royal Trust for Carers (http://www.carers.org/). Again full of helpful advice. Leeds even have their own centre (http://www.carers.org/local/north-east/leeds/) where someone would be happy to chat to you about the problem

Hope this helps BTDTGTTS

Thanks Bob, have spoken to Age Concern and they were such a great help.
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Be very very wary of social workers.As you say there opinion is your mother in law has early signs of Dementia ,yet they are not qualified to make that assesment.

I lived with a senior social worker for a number of years,who now happens to own a number of care home ,filled with social worker clients.:eek:

They are not above doing commercial deals with various parties.:rolleyes:

So try to get control of your inlaws care back in your husbands hands.

My experience of social workers is that they live vacariously through there clients problems.

When we had a group round to dinner ,all they talked about was the problems of there various clients.No normal conversation.

Hence she is an ex.:)

Earl
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Maria,

I can understand your frustration. You are family, social workers are not. Therefore, you ought to be in complete control of the situation - unless you ask for help and support. How dare these people interfere with your family!

If you have control of their finances, can you not declare that funds are not available for these services? How can the government force you to pay for services not requested and not wanted? It's criminal.

I really hope you manage to take control of the situation and stop the social services people from spending other people's money.
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Sounds awful Maria, hope you get it sorted.

Thanks for the heads up, mine and Mrs estwigs parents aren't getting any younger, we'll be facing these sorta problems soon.
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When we had a group round to dinner ,all they talked about was the problems of there various clients.No normal conversation.

Hence she is an ex.:)

Earl


Shame,
another couple of years and you might be one of her clients :)
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There are many fine social workers, and they do a tremendous and difficult job - often without being fully appreciated. Sadly, though, my opinion is coloured by someone I know quite well. She has to be one of the most dysfunctional and irresponsible people I know, yet the government trusts her to offer social help to others? Shouldn't social workers be able to demonstrate the ability to run their own families before they are trusted to comment on others?
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It is just soo difficult, they act like they are doing the best for them, even constantly referring to my mother in law as "Mum" rather than "your Mum" or "your Mother" as though they are related! Their only interest is to tick boxes and close the case off for themselves, not thinking about the effect long-term on my in-laws. My mother in law is still stuck in hospital unstimulated until they sort their act out and tick the boxes on their paperwork and "cover their backs" with the ridiculously expensive care package in place and my father in law is 300 miles away from us, lonely and confused wondering when his wife will be allowed to live with him again.

We will take these incompetent sh*ts on, as civil servants rarely cover their backs with hard work or diligence; it is dumbfounding as they keep informing us that she now needs two people to help her walk etc, why not get a wheelchair and then we need just the one person? even though we can easily take her shopping where she just links my father in law...

What's even more sickening is that my father in law put a lot of his money in my mother in laws name so she would be taken care of should anything happen to him, and now she is the most ill, it is her finances that the social services are taking into consideration when they "cost" the care package....
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There are many fine social workers, and they do a tremendous and difficult job - often without being fully appreciated. Sadly, though, my opinion is coloured by someone I know quite well. She has to be one of the most dysfunctional and irresponsible people I know, yet the government trusts her to offer social help to others? Shouldn't social workers be able to demonstrate the ability to run their own families before they are trusted to comment on others?

As I said in my earlier post had a lot of experience with social workers off duty.And my observations were that they were attracted to the profession in order to find a cure for there own problems via there clients.

Definitely had a downer on the whole of society and considered themselves the chosen ones.

Again not saying there are not some genuine and good ones about,but never got round to meeting one.All seemed so flaky to me.:|

Earl
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