Tales from the care homes -
Two elderly women suffering from dementia were found wandering the Covid wards at a Glasgow hospital at the weekend. Eventually staff worked out who they were - residents of a nearby care home. Management of the care home said they must have wandered off. Staff say the two women had Covid symptoms and were driven by the manager and a care assistant to the hospital and dumped outside.
I've mentioned before that my step-son works in a care home. I've seen WhatsApp messages talking about the sheer incompetence of care home management and the utter chaos going on. These are supposedly Council run and supervised facilities but it's clear the standards are appalling. Little wonder that Sturgeon is having to address the more public concerns but this is a sector that will really need shaken up once this is over Completely unsurprising to see the death toll is so high.
I think that rather like protected workshops, a lot depends on the individual organisation. They can be well run; my grandmother lived until she was 103 in a spotless council run care home in Yorkshire with very kind, dedicated staff, who made her the mother of all cakes every birthday without fail. Equally I've seen private homes where people were basically dumped in a char and left to fend for themselves the rest of the day.
Unfortunately I think that for the authorities they can become a place to dump people as cheaply as possible, and when that becomes the attitude then you end up with all kinds of problems.
I've noticed here that there's a trend to make sure that people with disabilities live and work in places run by different organisations, which I think is an excellent idea because it means both organisations keep an eye on each other.
