Personalised Budgets- How personal do you really think they are?

bll78

Hi,
This a bit abstract on a disability and dosh forum but it is related to the dosh and how you have to use it. I also want to know if this is standard or just the view of my authority?
So as mentioned on another thread somewhere it has been decided that I need more help and Social Services came to see me. They have done the assessment and decided I need 10 hours a week of support which I want through Direct Payment.

It will help immensely and I am grateful, but I do feel that they've led me down a path where my only option is to have a carer, when I'd rather be as independent as possible. So for example I cannot use a normal shower (positive romberg makes me fall everytime I try), and the bath eases my aches and pains when the morphine fails, and a soak in the bath is my main source of relaxation and enjoyment (I must be getting sad :rotfl:). The OT's decided using the bath was better than a walk in shower and gave me a bath lift which serves the purpose but as it sits on the floor of the bath, I literally have the bottom of my legs in the bath, so the whole relaxation thing has gone out of the window. It has also had a massive impact on me, as soaking on bad days can often turn me around and ease off the stiffness. Without it there's not much relief.
I was asked what was the main things I wanted to change in my life as part of the assessment, the 2 things were getting out (and a life) and being able to have a proper soak and relax. I wanted to buy a walk in bath (cost of about £750), instead they've given me an hour a week of carer time to get me in and out of the bath. To me it's a waste of resources as 1 1/2 years of carer time will cost more than the bath that would have lasted say 8 years, and to be honest I'd rather have a soak at my own leisure and as often as I want rather than on a schedule.
There are other examples, but I do feel the whole philosophy of putting things in place to give service users greater choice is actually being comprimised by the mantra of the solution is a carer.
Don't get me wrong carer's are the solution to some/most of my problems, but where there are alternatives which would keep me independent I would rather have them than a person.
Does anyone else feel like this, and did you have a problem getting what you wanted?

Morglin

I know what you mean about a hot soak in the bath -works wonders for me!

I don't get DP's, as I really cannot be bothered to get social services involved, and I manage ok with family etc.,

When I was involved in getting a DFG, though, I thought one of those walk in baths would be good, but they refused to supply one, as allegedly, they have a nasty habit of leaking seals, which would cause a risk of flooding. They put in a wet room instead, which did take away the joy of a bath.

So, it may be that your council are also reluctant to get involved with these baths.

Lin

Savvy_Sue

Morglin wrote: »

When I was involved in getting a DFG, though, I thought one of those walk in baths would be good, but they refused to supply one, as allegedly, they have a nasty habit of leaking seals, which would cause a risk of flooding. They put in a wet room instead, which did take away the joy of a bath.

It's not just that though, you have to get into the bath before you run it, and then stay in it until the water's drained away. Wouldn't sitting in a draining bath while you were wet negate the effects of the good long soak you've just had?

Morglin

Yeah, I hadn't really thought it through properly!

But, the OT just wouldn't hear of it anyway, because of the leaking issues, so it had to be a wet room.

However, I still find a bath really useful for soaking, and luckily our bathroom, now, is big enough to accommodate a walk in shower cubicle, and a bath, so all bases covered!

Lin

nannytone_2

i receive direct payments and save approx £100 a month of the money.
this pays for managing the account and allows me to build up a little extra in case my PA is ill/on holiday and i need to pay someone for addition help.
i can also use this money for one off purchases of any equipment i might need ( i do have to ask permission from my social worker before i spend)

cbrown372

I take it the 10 hours via direct payment is on top of your current carer arrangements? Is this to give your current carer a break as much as anything?

As you live with a partner can they not oversee a bath without the need of a lift?

bll78

cbrown372 wrote: »

I take it the 10 hours via direct payment is on top of your current carer arrangements? Is this to give your current carer a break as much as anything?

As you live with a partner can they not oversee a bath without the need of a lift?

We used to manage ok, he used to lift me in and out. When the OT's arrived they were not impressed with this, and pointed out that if he did himself an injury we will be in a real pickle, which makes sense but as things get worse you just keep on managing until someone comes along and points out the obvious. There were a few other things they weren't happy with but a few aids have sorted those too.
As for the 10 hours caring time, the plan is to let him have a life again. He had been in the Army 18 years when he had to leave 4 years before he would have got his full pension because I couldn't be left alone at night (my spasticity gets worse at night and I need assistance to get up and about in the morning and during the night). He found leaving hard as it'd been his life since he was 16 , anyway he found full time work and did that for a few years but it was getting too much in the end being out of the house 12 hours a day and trying to care for me and us sorting ad hoc cover during the day for me. So we sat down and looked at it all, it made more sense for him to give up work and for us to live off my pension and me do a few hours work instead, with him supporting me physically. I was finding not being in work quite hard to deal with, going from being a senior manager to sat staring at the TV had a huge mental impact (I'm not saying depression or anything just generally feeling useless and stuck in 4 walls bored. It was probably one of the harder things to cope with when I got so ill).

Anyway it's worked in some senses but he's only been out of work 5 months and he doesn't feel comfortable not working. I know what he's doing is important, and I think he knows this, but also having worked since he was 12, it just isn't sitting well with him. So 10 hours of carer, plus him being about at night, and my mum who has recently retired chipping in ( I am nearly a foot taller than her so she's not doing the really physical stuff), and me employing a support worker to work with me during my work hours and he can get himself back into employment.

He has been amazing and I'm very lucky as we'd not been together long when I became so bad, but I think him working will actually do us both good.