Is Anybody There at Home Care?

Another phone call to the HC office this morning. The poor lady who answered the phone didn't know what the local STD code was nor the names of others working in the office. She has promised to call back. Knock me down with an F if she does.

It has taken us about 3 years to have a social worker assigned to Mum's case/care package. Last Christmas, the social worker recommended that we consider a Direct Payments scheme. It was quite a challenge to try and find the people who would work together frankly for a pittance. I had already started to look for someone three years' ago and just got lucky this year. We of course, must contribute. I have long since shunted the issue of debt to the back of my mind but how to contribute £ 200/week when I am doing the caring and have no income is a grand mystere - especially since I had been the breadwinner and the family are all living off meagre savings and handouts from the legacy of H2's father. Not a bean from mine. For all that I loved my father, his priorities were completely squiffed. And don't even mention the 'P' (as in pensions) word! At least, I don't have the worry of my portfolio, the plummeting of my shares is an insouciance...

Having got the team together - without help from Home Care - we are now derailed because the Christmas case officer has been reassigned to another department. At first, she didn't answer my email so I emailed again blaming gremlins for its non-delivery. No answer. But as a carer, you get quite used to the 'no answer' routine. When I followed up with a phone call, it was then that I found out that she had been reassigned. She has at least phoned the local office to request another case officer for us. That's about a month after the team was finalised, and we are no further forward. I employ these people through my taxes! No-one is accountable. No-one will ever be accountable, because most of their clients oblige them by dying. Which Coroner's Court will find that my mother, and others like her, died as a result of indecision and turpitude on the part of the Powers That Be? There are a few, though, (notably the redoubtable Mary C) who do what they can, emailing colleagues to request that Mum's case is fast-tracked.

For all the turgid, uselessness of the HC system, Mum's illness has brought forth people without whom I simply could not manage: Mum's private carer and my Friday-girl, Mary M, Gill, our CPN, Dr L, the GP and the Community Care officer Mary C are all superb. Honorary Sunbeams, God bless them.