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| Have we learned the lessons from Cornwall? | Community Care | 28 Jun 07 |
| Re: Have we learned the lessons from Cornwall? | denise Cuffe | 3 Jul 07 |
| Re: Have we learned the lessons from Cornwall? | Paula | 16 Jul 07 |
| Subject | Have we learned the lessons from Cornwall? | ||||
| Author | Community Care | ||||
| Date | 28/06/2007 09:14 | ||||
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Twelve months after a report exposed the appalling treatment of people with learning disabilities in Cornish care, Janet Snell assesses progress made by the external change team charged with hauling the county's services into the 21st century Have your say on if lessons have been learnt. |
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| Subject | Re: Have we learned the lessons from Cornwall? | ||||
| Author | denise Cuffe | ||||
| Date | 03/07/2007 20:04 | ||||
| No I do not believe we have learnt any lessons from Cornwall. As someone who has worked in learning disabilities in the NHS for 14 years I am amazed that nobody seems to realise that living 'in the community' for some people is just another institution, albeit a small one. Of course there have been some improvements, and despite the lack of training the majority of support staff do a brilliant job. However, the ideal of small 'supported' living schemes remains severely under funded. The young adults I work with are entitled to and recieve benefits but they are not entitled to housing benefit and pay a 'contribution to care' By the time they have paid this they are effectively left with £20-£30 pounds to cover the purchase of clothing, toiletries and social activities etc. Day service provision is limited, two of the residents have access to just 3 hours a week. Following the Cornwall scandal and all the talk of inspection and promises of better care for people with learning disabilities I discover that the Trust I work for and others were to 'self audit'. Despite the talk of shared responsibility and greater involvement of the commissioning agencies the people I work with do not have a named care manager and indeed have not had one in the 12 years I have worked with them. The NHS Trust I work for has now also reduced the level of experience required to work in the service. This results in new staff with no previous experience working totally alone supporting people with often complex and profound disabilities. No I do not think we have learned. | |||||
| Subject | Re: Have we learned the lessons from Cornwall? | ||||
| Author | Paula | ||||
| Date | 16/07/2007 16:16 | ||||
| I agree - people think living in the community is the answer to everything, without bothering to think about how it will actually work. The powers that be certainly see it as a cheaper option. | |||||
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