Hearing difficulties & loneliness

A staggering nine million people in this country are believed to have hearing difficulties.

It is thought that 4 million use hearing aids and another 4 million probably ought to do so – at least 50,000 are profoundly deaf and 23,000 blind-deaf.

For many older people their increasing years comes with some form of hearing difficulty which, as we know, can lead on to problems caused by social isolation and loneliness.

Yet with modern technology there are now many ways to both improve hearing and to communicate – amongst them the BT Text Relay Service, previously known as Type Talk.

This amazing service, which automatically applies a discount to your calls using the service is in operation throughout the year and can be accessed by textphone users and those with conventional telephones by entering either 18001 or 18002 prior to calling the person you want to communicate with.

The Relay handles around 40,000 calls a week in complete confidence and 2 million calls a year…no records are kept and operators are shielded from their colleagues and have to hand over anything they could communicate with prior to starting work.

Until this week I was completely unaware that it existed, and neither had I given much thought to how people with hearing difficulties communicate, until attending a talk by Cornwall-based deaf communications consultant Mark Cunliffe.

I’d recommend him to any organisation involved in communication where people do have, or might have, hearing difficulties. He delivers his talk peppered with humour yet at the same time is very thought provoking.

Mark also offers Deaf awareness training, Sign Language training as well as Telecoms training and can review a company's services and see how it can be improved to Deaf and hard of hearing people.
Mark can be contacted by email at   -  mark_lcunliffe@hotmail.com

I’ve take the liberty of cutting and pasting the following about him ….

Mark Cunliffe has been profoundly deaf since the age of 6. He attended the Mary Hare Grammar school for deaf people and was involved in the deaf community in the North West of England before moving to Cornwall. He is an experienced Deaf and Disability Awareness trainer and has fluent Sign Language skills being qualified to stage III BSL.
Mark’s employment background is varied, ranging from working in hotels as a front of House Manager to being employed by the RNID as a Social Worker. For the last 9 years Mark has been an Outreach Coordinator at the National Telephone Relay Service, Typetalk (now known as UK’s Text Relay service) where he was working on a daily basis with deaf, deafened and speech impaired customers, helping them to use their Textphones and the Text Relay (formerly known as Typetalk). Additionally, Mark has delivered awareness training to many organisations in the correct way to deal with calls via the telephone network using both the Text Relay service (Typetalk) and their company Minicoms.

http://www.communicationsaccessconsultants.co.uk/ourteam.php

Southern Cross - thoughts for the future

As the dust settles on the Southern Cross developments and new owners are found for some of the homes the debate begins about whether the 'market forces' model is the right one for so sensitive an area as adult social care...or care for any vulnerable group, come to that.

To bring the system completely under the State would obviously involve enormous costs, yet the alternative problems of a privately run,' for profit' system are there for all to see. That's not to say that the State is capable of running a flexible and localised system of care, whether it wants to or not.

Should care of the vulnerable, irrespective of age, come under the cloak of the State? Should we all pay, as part of our taxes, to receive that service...after all we all get old and many of us will need some form of additional care which families are either unable, or reluctant to provide.

Are not to profit organisations the answer? They might be, but there are arguments which suggest they will only work in certain situations and even then we have to defined what we mean by 'not for profit'.

MPs will be away from the House of Commons for weeks on end over the summer and in the autumn will start looking in earnest at the Dilnot recommendations. An ideal time, perhaps, for reflection of what we as individual think might be the answer.

The link to the following Guardian article may provide some further food for thought -

Southern Cross's incurably flawed business model let down the vulnerable

Southern Cross closure

Southern Cross has this morning, Monday 11 July, suspended share trading on the Stock Exchange.

The company says it will now start the process of an orderly closure of the business and is hoping to make sure that all 31,000 residents in its homes, spread across the country will not be affected.

The properties it holds will be offered back to landlords, many of whom are owed rent and/or have already agreed to a reduction in rental payments; or sold to new buyers.

The company chairman Christopher Fisher says his priority is to maintain the continuity of care for residents but the move will send shock-waves throughout the sector and cause consternation for many directors of adult services at local councils.

Critics will point to the ongoing problems with the company as reasons why care of the nation's older people should not be in the hands of businesses which, by definition, are set up to make profits and often do make mistakes or wrong-guess the way markets run.

Poor Care - Do we all share the blame?

Older people remain among the most marginalised in our society yet, given the fact that most of us will eventually get there, seem to attract the least impetus for change.

Over the years there has been countless Government and other inquiries about the situation but it seems looking back though history that no sooner has one inquiry started than another one starts, and little gets done.

Today an interim report into human rights abuses tells how some older people receiving domiciliary care are left in soiled clothes and in bed for up to 17 hours a day. Much of this treatment is meted out by out local authorities who have cut and cut their budgets and, consequently, the amount of time those receiving care get. This of course only concerns those who receive care – because fewer old people receive care than ever before as thresholds have risen, in most cases, to critical level.

The councils, of course, point the finger at the Government for its cuts in block grant although it must be remembered that an extra £1billion for adult social care in recent months seems to have largely disappeared ..but then, of course, it wasn't ring-fenced.

In reality much of what goes on is nothing short of institutional elder abuse – at the hands of the state, at the hands of the local authority and, because few of us make a fuss about it, in our names.

BBC - Interim report outlines shocking abuses of the human rights http://t.co/8LeQbfY

Telegraph - Home help so poor for elderly it 'threatens most basic human rights', claims ...

Independent - Home care 'neglects basic rights' of elderly

Mail  - Bad home care for elderly by councils 'breaches human rights'

Minister Paul Burstow & Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults

 Paul Burstow on BBC Radio 4 'World this Weekend' Sunday 5 June

The Government is suggesting it will strengthen Adult Protection Boards to give added safety measures to protect vulnerable adults – in line with powers given to safeguard children.

Run by local authorities they will bring together the Police, NHS and Social Services.

The BBC says the measure would require new legislation.

In his first interview since the Panorama programme Minister Paul Burstow said he thought it right that Dame Joan Williams should continue as head of the CQC following the apparent failure of the organisation to take ‘appropriate action’ after twice ( at least ) being told of problems. Dame Joan had admitted earlier in the week that the organisation had made an 'unforgivable error of judgement.'

The Minister did admit that, under his instructions, there had been a freeze on recruitment at the CQC, which he said had been lifted since October and another 75 staff were in the process of being recruited. He would not agree, or disagree, whether or not the CQC had enough staff for the increasing tasks it had been given by the Government.

A statement to the programme from the King’s Fund said that pressures were beginning to build up within the care sector, made worse by flat, or declining budgets, coupled with an increase in the number of elderly people who need care.

 

Mr Burstow said it was clear there would never be enough inspectors but that providers should not be ‘let off the hook’ and had the ultimate duty of care. He said it was their responsibility to recruit and train suitable staff. He also said that the NHS and others who commission services had a role to play in this respect.

Mr Burstow said he was committed to follow through on proposals from the Law Commission to set up statutory safeguarding boards which would require the Police, NHS and Social Services to work together to ensure that they had what he described as ‘an appropriate response’ – which he said would be close to the areas where the problems might arise.

Again he re-iterated the need for providers to have the right staff, properly trained and well supervised.

The financial model for Southern Cross was outlined on the programme as an indicator of growing problems within the adult socila care sector.

Mr Burstow described the company’s business model as ‘odd’ and said that Government would put its focus on ensuring, that if the worst did happen,  that residents did not suffer. But he said the Government was not in the business of 'bailing out' a private business.
The Minister said the company and others were working towards making it a business which would continue to support its 31,000 residents.

It is perhaps worth adding, although not covered in the Radio 4 interview, that the Sunday Times today reports a supposed £50,000 cap, over two years, on the cost of care after which the Government would step in and offer financial support. However the report also suggests that money the Government spent on that care might later be recouped from the proceeds of any estate after death.

The paper also has a full-page article in the main section which looks at the current state of care in the country and the likely progression following the Dilnott report which is due out in the coming weeks.

Bristol Abuse Case

Four people have interviewe by police and released on bail and thirteen staff  suspended at a facility for people with learning disabilities in Bristol after last night's (31 May )  showing of a BBC Panorama programme.
The home, which charges £3,500 per person per week, was the subject of undercover filming which showed what one professional described as staff 'torturing' those they were paid to care for.
The company involved has issued an unreserved apology and has started its own investigation using an independent firm.
MP Stephen Dorrell said on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that the CQC would have questions to answer when it appeared before a House of Commons committee later this month. He also raised the question of what those who commissioned the care at the facility were doing to check standards.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13548222

The CQC was slow to comment on the situation but did so later in the day with an early evening appearance of its chief office in a fairly lengthy interview on BBC Radio 4's PM programme which you should be able to hear on the BBCs 'listen again' service.

CQC statement - http://tinyurl.com/3o6vj2p

Law Commission report on social care legislation

The reform of social care legislation should ensure fairness says a Law Commission report published today (11 May ).

Report authors says the existing law around social care is flawed and out of date and should be replaced by a single piece of legislation clearly setting out people's rights.

But wholescale reform fo adult social care is still some way away with the Dilnott Report into the funding of adult social care expected in July and changes not likely to come into effect until at least the autumn of 2012.

Many pundits from the sector believe that the changes will effectively force people to sell assets they have, including their homes, to pay for care and a greater involvement in social care by the NHS.

Charities working with older people have broadly welcomed the proposals with Age UK reiterating that the existing system is so flawed that it is close to collapse.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13349736