by Simon Heng
Despite reforms, disabled and older people are still struggling to receive the services they need. But few people appear to care
I'm getting back into the swim of things after my enforced sabbatical. Just in case you wondered where I've been for the past few months, I suffered an uncomfortably close brush with death involving blood poisoning, hallucinations, internal haemorrhaging and weeks in hospital.
I discover that little in the world of the disabled - and adult social care in particular - has changed for the better. Except, of course, in-patient care for disabled people.
The recent Commission for Social Care Inspection report, for example, included comments on the tightening of eligibility criteria for care. CSCI pointed out something that most of us have known for some time, that hundreds of thousands of older and disabled people are struggling to survive in their own homes with no paid help.
A few journalists and politicians tried to make this a subject for national debate. The subject did come up on Question Time and the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, where the politicians declared themselves to be scandalised, and that everyone deserved a life with dignity.
But not enough politicians were scandalised into asking why so many people should be expected to live without the help they need to eat, to keep clean, or even to get into and out of bed, so the topic faded.
Underfunded adult social care
Today's rolling news cycle means that even big stories can be conveniently pushed to one side by newer topics in a very short time - particularly when the subject, adult social care, doesn't bear too much close examination before uncomfortable truths come to light.
In this case, the truths are that government has underfunded adult social care for years. Successive governments have managed to pass the blame on to local authorities - calling them inefficient - and by blaming social workers in particular, they have managed to divert attention away from the fact that neither main political party has ever been prepared to invest an adequate amount into this sector.
For all the steps forwards, community-based care, advocacy, person-centred planning, direct payments, NVQs for care workers or personalised budgets, all of which have helped some of us lead better lives and get better care, there's still more fuss made about the welfare of mass produced broiler chickens than there is about older or disabled people who aren't quite incapacitated enough to "deserve" social care.
Simon Heng is a wheel chair user and involved in service user-led groups