Who provides daily living AIDS?

margaretclare

Yes, we bought one of those suction things for when we went away on holiday. The damned thing would fall off, bang, in the night sometimes. I wouldn't like to think what would happen if you were putting your whole weight on it e.g. getting out of the shower.

Re grandma struggling with stairs, bathing etc. When my first husband and I decided to move from a 3-storey cottage to a bungalow we were told 'One day you'll look back and be glad you did this'. I have done so, more than once, on many occasions. And problems with bathing - it's years since we got into a bath. Our tiny bathroom was made into a mobility-friendly bathroom at huge cost, last April, and it has been worth every penny. I don't see that as 'giving in to weakness' but being realistic.

rockingbilly

DomRavioli wrote: »

Grab rails et al are supposed to be paid for out of her AA - it is for extra expenses, not living costs. .

Maybe then this is a typical case that outlines the need to scrap AA in favour of giving the council the money to help provide these pieces of kit?

margaretclare

rockingbilly wrote: »

Maybe then this is a typical case that outlines the need to scrap AA in favour of giving the council the money to help provide these pieces of kit?

But then you'd have to go to the council and ask...

There are mobility shops in every town nowadays. We have one just round the corner from us, and what they haven't got, doesn't exist. I went there recently for a walking-stick to fit my L hand after the R hip revision. Also VAT-free!

Mojisola

rockingbilly wrote: »

Maybe then this is a typical case that outlines the need to scrap AA in favour of giving the council the money to help provide these pieces of kit?

margaretclare wrote: »

But then you'd have to go to the council and ask...

And a lot of the money now available to buy things would be used up in the wages and office costs of the people who had to decide whether a individual could have the piece of equipment they were asking for.

My parents used their AA money to pay for carers and things like a wheelchair rather than going through the council which would have taken ages.

DomRavioli

rockingbilly wrote: »

Maybe then this is a typical case that outlines the need to scrap AA in favour of giving the council the money to help provide these pieces of kit?

Quite the opposite. AA is for those in long term need, and is assessed as such - that money can pay for extra care hours, cleaners, whatever is needed (and the council will not provide for).

The council will not guarantee that this money will be used solely for those in long term need. They have slashed care and budgets, this will be used to line councillors pockets, not improve safety.

nannytone_2

rockingbilly wrote: »

Maybe then this is a typical case that outlines the need to scrap AA in favour of giving the council the money to help provide these pieces of kit?

a lot of peop-le don't need 'kit' though.
they need the physical presence of another person.

so either the claimant has the funds to pay the person at a time and location that suits them, or has to accept the council provided help when it suits the council.

my FIL was given his breakfast at 11 and someone turned upp to give him his lunch at 12!

it may save money, but peoples lives can be seriously compromised by giving someone else the power to provide the care needed

nannytone_2

skcollobcat10 wrote: »

Hello nannytone, is criteria like that just in England?

I offered to contribute to equipment from ot in Scotland and they told me they will pay all the costs. I am in social housing is that the reason I do not have to contribute?

equipment ids provided on a very local level.
what the individual authorities can afford to provide.

the contributions i refer to are in regards to care.

its all gone t!ts up in my area.
i used to be under the sensory impairment team. my social worker was fantastic and was forever phoning me to ask if i would like a new bit of kit he had acquired.
then they changes the system and now i have a social worker allocated by the area i live in.
she admits that i am not the 'typical service user' and that she has no experience of anyone with sight impairments. ( she knows about working with the elderly infirm) she also has kids on her books, and troubled and vulnerable young people.
none of which she is confident to help.

she's a nice, decent person. but totally impotant when it comes to meeting the needs of many of her clients

nannytone_2

skcollobcat10 wrote: »

Thank you for your reply nannytone, it was just when I had my own house in another area I had to pay 50% of everything. So when OT said they pay for all, I was surprised at that. In 17 years of being disabled I have had to pay for nearly everything myself, I am really grateful for their help.

Fact is I have had to service and provide my own wheelchairs for the last 12 years, she couldn't believe it. What had happened in the area where I lived previously was the dr. said it wasn't worth bothering with wheelchair service so he had advice from an OT, wish he was around now so I could thump him!

This OT has kindly also referred me to wheelchair dept.

im not au fait regarding wheelchairs.
i know that the NHS can provide them, but that they are far from ideal and that if people want them to meet specific needs, they will have to fund them as the NHS only cater for the most basic needs

Katykat

nannytone wrote: »

a lot of peop-le don't need 'kit' though.
they need the physical presence of another person.

so either the claimant has the funds to pay the person at a time and location that suits them, or has to accept the council provided help when it suits the council.

my FIL was given his breakfast at 11 and someone turned upp to give him his lunch at 12!

it may save money, but peoples lives can be seriously compromised by giving someone else the power to provide the care needed

I agree, giving the council money instead of giving individual AA payments would be like throwing money down a well. Up to now, my MiL has used her AA to pay for taxis when we haven't been available to take her shopping, to pay for a mobile hairdresser, for extra podiatry treatment because NHS cuts mean she can only have her nails cut 4 times a year. And all the other things that an abled body person may regard as " luxuries" but mean an elderly or disabled person can function as normal as possible. She hasn't squandered her AA, but at the same time she hasn't saved any of it, therefore the AA pot is empty, and she doesn't have a spare £1500 to pay for a stairlift or other aids.

margaretclare

skcollobcat10 wrote: »

Whether you get AA, DLA, ESA support group you end up using most of it for all the extra problems disability brings. I think if all was left for the council to purchase all the disability items required, you would have to wait a lot longer.

I would always employ my own carers, whatever the cost, I was a registered nurse and I don't like the way social services employ carers, you have no choice of the times they visit and if there is extra to do they never have the time. Just as bad are agency staff all the overheads on top of hourly rate and paying for petrol on top.

DH was discharged from hospital early Dec after being admitted a month before that for a 2-stage revision of knee replacement. Only one stage was actually done and, to cut a long story short, he's now going to a specialist orthopaedic unit at Oxford for reconstruction - not revision - of knee. When they wanted to send him home as 'medically fit' the social workers, rehab/OT people got involved and insisted on setting up a 'care package' for him. No matter how often we said we didn't want it, they insisted. They actually did set it up but I managed to cancel it before anyone arrived at the door - a lady from the county care team phoned me and she was the first who actually listened.

It was planned to have one carer 4 x day x 7 days a week. No idea what they were meant to do. We also had a commode delivered which we managed to get taken back. DH was supposed to not be able to get into the bathroom or use the loo or anything. The worst part of having this imposed on us was being expected to pay for it. It would have been £255 a week, and that's a lot more than any AA. They wanted to send someone to do a financial assessment and weren't very pleased when we cancelled it.

The social worker in hospital told me 'we'll only take half your joint account'. Obviously she didn't understand how we run our finances, but I said 'Good luck with that. The joint account exists only to pay bills and after the first few days of the month it hasn't got much in it until we fund it again the last day of the month'.

I did say that if we found we needed help from a care agency there are a few round about and it's only a matter of picking up the phone. But these people look at us and think 'hmmm, 80+, must be ga-ga'.