From the Daily Mail - Care home accuses son of KIDNAP after he took his mother home for Christmas Day
Having dealt with similar cases I can only assume there is a lot more to this. Unless of course it is a particularly over zealous care home (although it does mention that the lady is subject to an order of court of protection following a 'dispute with a family member'.
I often feel in cases like this (having been on the 'family' side myself) how unreasonable social services/ care homes can first appear in some of the actions that they take, unless someone takes a considerable amount of time explaining why they have to take the actions that they do. Even then some families truly believe that we are being unreasonable, and sometimes that does make me doubt my assessment, just how well can we get to know someone's history and family relationships, and make judgements on them when realistically we only have a snapshot.
Many issues could have been solved in the first instance by a wider public knowledge of the mental capacity act/ power of attorney/ court of protection etc...
...Or perhaps, with increasing legislation such as the MCA, and heightened public interest in adult care (Staffordshire Hospitals/ Winterbourne etc) could adult services heading towards the same problems as children services with misinterpretations of the law, heresay scare stories and myths colouring the view of the role of social work with adults? I feel adult social work has been relatively unscathed by tabloid attention in comparison to children's services, is that perhaps going to change? Is there finally a sea change in public opinion towards the care of vulnerable adults?
All recent BBC
- Elderly care in crisis
- see elderly as human beings
- home care breaches human rights
Again I agree with you. I saw that story and had exactly the same response. There has to be more to this situation that is reported because the Daily Mail can take a verbatim report from family and LA can't respond.
I am sure I've mentioned it before but I've been involved in a situation that could have been presented on the front page of the Daily Mail/Sun regarding taking an older adult away from a family member but the actual facts would never have been revealed but it 'looked' really bad.
Unfortunately the MCA/DoLs has been presented to the public through the prism of the 'secret court decisions' and 'overbearing local authorities' when actual knowledge of Act would help to understand that there are although there can be wrong/bad decisions (Neary is a case in point) these decisions are generally taken with thought and care.
Going against a family's wishes would have to have VERY VERY good reason in my experience.
Adult social work generally isn't seen in the same focus that children's social work is because people care more about children in general. More emotive. Maybe that will change but if it does, I hope it brings a more general appreciate of the needs and issues regarding abuse of adults so that the profile of that aspect can be raised to the level that abuse of children receives.
Seems to me that this is another example The Daily Heil's ongoing campaign to demonise public services.