The system is failing people / bit of a rant in Work

Our country’s health and social care system is absolutely going to pot - and the pot’s cracked and broken beyond repair.

Today, I spoke with a carer - this is an unpaid family carer - who is looking after her husband with dementia. He’s been getting aggressive and violent towards her, but only when they’re alone, not when there’s anyone else around.

A few weeks ago, she was so fearful of him that she called the police in desperation. They attended pretty quickly and managed to calm him down. They then made a safeguarding referral to social care. All good and correct so far.

The social worker got in touch with the carer just before Christmas and asked how things were. The carer replied that things were ok at the moment because her son had two weeks off work over Christmas and was staying with them.

The damn ineffective, incompetent social worker wrote up that “things are ok at the moment” WITHOUT mentioning that it’s a temporary ok or adding the bit about the son staying with them and marked the case as non-urgent. She apparently didn’t probe at all and ask how the carer felt about the situation two weeks into the future when the son moves back to his home town.

He’s moved back now and she had to call the police again today. She then called us in tears.

Bloody government with their “austerity measures”.
Bloody local authority with their budget cuts and giving social workers huge caseloads and next to no support.
Bloody social workers who ignore safeguarding issues.

The carer is a petite woman in her late seventies. She should NOT have to be afraid to be in her own home with her husband.