Just strikes me as ridiculous that care homes are being built all over the place and then they charge all this money (to individual families or councils and houses having to be sold to pay for this) to care for these people. I reckon I could employ a couple of carers on an above living wage and provide a lovely room and family care and love and all that to an elderly relative for £1000 a week and still work.
Thoughts?
(Yes abuse could happen with a family getting that amount of money given to them to look after their relative, but why can’t we have nice things because of a few scummy people abuse the system? By ‘nice things’ being able to have and house our elderly relatives with us when the money it costs just goes to businesses which are always cutting costs and are generally awful places.)
Edit: Lots of personal experiences re funding, relating to house ownership and all that, but the council you pay into will have to house that person for £1,000 a month. That’s the point. If a family could accommodate them, wouldn’t it be nicer to just pay the family that rather than funding a business which is about ‘old people warehousing’?
Edit 2: If an elderly person decides to go into a care home, they sell their home, they have to take out an annuity with the care home, which is based on the time the care home thinks they’ve got left. The funds from the house sale goes into their coffers and they basically take a punt on it…
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If they need round the clock care, you’re going to need more than a couple of carers. You’ll also have agency fees or else you’ll have to employ them directly and pay taxes/provide a pension etc etc. It’s not insurmountable but I don’t think it’s as easy or cheap as you seen to think. Not everyone would have the space for it either.
ETA thinking about this more, you may also need specialist equipment.
On a personal note, I’d just like to say how much I object to you saying “old people warehousing”. Very often people don’t have a choice and it’s a very difficult and emotional decision for all concerned. Have some empathy.
>relating to house ownership and all that, but the council you pay into will have to house that person for £1,000 a month. That’s the point. If a family could accommodate them, wouldn’t it be nicer to just pay the family that rather than funding a business which is about ‘old people warehousing’?
By the time people are in care homes they often have various medical issues that need care managing.
They likely need some level of personal care – as much as I love my Mum I really don’t want to wipe her bum and it can get to that level. Also I work full time – I wouldn’t want her left alone.
Dementia likely is setting in and that is hard to see – asking about long dead partners or being nasty and paranoid. They might call out all day long & night!
They need someone available around the clock – both carers and some level of medically trained staff.
They might need special beds, chairs, wheelchair, wet rooms & no steps.
Food might need to be specially made.
And bare in mind minimum wage is £1,395.20 a month so your £1000 isn’t even going going to cover in full time day person – nothing for the night or additional care. Plus the carers really deserve a higher wage.
A good care home has the environment setup to be safe and provide the support needed. And since it isn’t constant 24 hour care one team can cover several people.
You’d have to ask most families for a proper answer to your question.
I’ve seen some people sell up and move into care in Thailand which works out cheaper and you’re somewhere with nice weather and food. I don’t know how I would feel about that as you are a long way away if things went wrong, but from what I could see the number of carers per resident was way higher than here.
I’ve worked in a residential home before and family members don’t put their relatives into a home because they aren’t receiving money for it.
So many people struggle with the decision and its extremely difficult for them but they cannot offer the care they need at home.
Imagine having a parent or a grandparent that had dementia along with not recognising you, were violent, didn’t sleep and couldn’t be unsupervised. Whilst careers may alleviate some of that pressure, imagine the immense pressure you’d be under. Eventually, this would become too much. The person you knew is long gone and they’re just a shell of the person they used to be, that in itself is too hard for some families to deal with.
There are also many that do not have families to step in. Others choose to go into them for the support and companionship.
I think you should probably do a little more research.
First responsibility when it comes to a person who requires that level of support is how to act in their best interests. You have to interface their wishes, with meeting their required level of support and quality of life attainment as best you can
And there is no mention of that here, its all about finances and devoid of empathy
I am saying this as someone who has looked after several family down the years.. I get where you are coming from but if you go into this with your business hat on you are in it for the wrong reasons, you won’t last long and worst of all the person that should be getting looked after won’t be (unintentional negligence is still neglect)
Also the remarks about care homes were pretty awful, after the last couple years.. just because we on occasion hear about bad ones does not mean there aren’t superb ones its just the latter is not newsworthy.