Page 12 - Community Living Magazine 32 - 4

opinion

Diary: first rule of caring is to care on ready-made M&S vegan meals instead
of having a weekly house barbecue every
week or paying for Sky?
There’s just no scope for person-centred
Suzanne Gale is beyond frustrated about another unnecessary choice.
death, councils controlling people’s lives and supported living
that is neither supported nor provides a good life Supported? Living?
To add to the idiocy, I continue to pull my
hair out at the lack of understanding by
Care Quality Commission about what
y mind keeps returning to the If a family member were acting in this supported living really means.
outcome of the inquest into the way, we’d challenge and raise formal One service that I visited had been
Mdeath of Giuseppe “Joe” Ulleri concerns, but it appears that random deemed “outstanding” yet people’s
at the Manchester Royal Infirmary. I just council staff – there was no named records, including files with all of their
cannot fathom how he was subjected to person, just a team – can make this personal information, were kept in an
neglect on this level. decision without question. unlocked cabinet in a communal area and
He was surrounded by family who were support staff were cooking all of the
clearly advocating for him and still staff Back to the 1950s meals and doing the cleaning for a
failed to meet his basic needs. This wasn’t In some authorities, there appear to be perfectly mobile and capable group
the result of cuts to funding and it wasn’t entire systems in place to keep adult of residents.
because of a split-second decision made residents as powerless as possible. I guess the CQC assessor had been
by an overworked junior doctor. distracted by the well-manicured garden
It was due to an institutional failure by and the pictures on the wall of people
the hospital to find out if he was as “ having a nice day out several years ago
One service was deemed
comfortable as he could be and whether “outstanding” yet personal (not the current residents, obviously).
he was hungry. Week one of medical I am beyond frustrated not just because
training, I’d have thought? records were kept in an this poor provision exists but also because
This, unfortunately, is an extreme but unlocked cabinet in a no one was shocked by what I found. Or,
common example of how support for seemingly, inclined to change anything.
people with additional support needs communal area
continues to be painfully substandard. I, ” Pain is part of a normal life
like most people, am furious about the Well done again BBC’s Call The Midwife.
funding cuts across the sector but this Many of the residents I met recently get Reggie (Daniel Laurie), who has Down’s
isn’t about that. It’s about not caring. an allowance that has not changed for syndrome, has held some strong
years and everyone gets the same. It is storylines over the years and, while living
Overall control of the council not related to how much they want to in a supported community, still comes
Recently, I’ve been working on a project spend or save. home regularly to visit his family.
where I did a whistle-stop tour around The council also decides how much is In the last series, Reggie announced
some supported living services to assess allowed for “housekeeping” as though the that he has a girlfriend. His family worried
whether they were fit for purpose. home is run by a 1950s housewife. This about him getting his heart broken but
In short, they weren’t. I saw a huge lack sum is not just for a general kitty for toilet his uncle said: “No one can go through life
of understanding and awareness of the roll and washing-up liquid as you’d find in without experiencing any pain at all.”
Care Act and its intention within the very other shared houses but for all the food in Hear, hear. Let Reggie try and maybe fail
institutions that have been given the the house, including tea, coffee and like the rest of us. n
responsibility to give people the intended snacks for staff.
equitable quality of life. What if I don’t want to fund my Suzanne Gale is a consultant who works
Just basic rights are not being housemate’s cheese addiction or my on projects to improve housing,
supported. support worker’s 10 cups of tea a day employment and lifestyle options for
I met one young man who had been habit? What if I want to spend my money marginalised people
assessed by the local authority as not
having capacity to manage his money, Councils often give a set
who told me he was no longer allowed to amount of “housekeeping”
have his bank statements posted to him in money to residents, as if
case anyone else in his home, including their shared homes were
his chosen support staff, sees them. They run by a 1950s housewife
now go straight to the council team that
manage his money.
He’s sad about this as he used to like
opening his post and keeping the
statements in a folder. I met him for only JosephineRN28/Wikimedia Commons
10 minutes and this was one of the things
he wanted to tell me about. It meant a lot
to him and his basic, perfectly reasonable
wishes were being completely ignored.

12 Vol 32 No 4 | Summer 2019 Community Living www.cl-initiatives.co.uk