Dear LPG

Before I became a pensioner I did lots of different jobs.  I was a student nurse for a while, I did a bit of social work and then I moved on to working in offices.  But the last job I had was that of a carer.  In the early 1990s I quite enjoyed the job because we had the time to become friends with the people we cared for.  In those days we were allowed a lot more flexibility to do what our clients wanted us to do which was often spending some time just talking with them.  I could get away with making extra time for them by doing three or four lots of shopping at the same time which would leave me a little extra time to spend with each of my clients and the average time allotted for each visit was an hour and it was not unusual to be allotted a two hour visit.

I have been away from the life of work for some twenty years now but about three years ago one of my older relatives became ill and had to spend some months in hospital.  We knew that he would need round the clock care when he left but, perhaps because of his independent nature he expressed and emphasised his wish to return to his home, where he lived alone, after he left hospital.  Social services arranged a package of care for him where carers would visit four times a day but things have changed in such a way that, through no fault of their own the carers just don’t have the time to make their visits unhurried any more. 

I spent a bit of time with him when he first left hospital; sometime staying overnight.  It appeared to me that the carers often get insufficient time to get to their appointments and there is no time allotted for if more care is needed.  One thing I learned when doing the job was that time was one of the biggest considerations appreciated by older people and now that I am older myself, I understand just how much longer everything takes. 

I have seen carers who have had to hurry clients out of bed really early in the morning to get to others while there are other times when they have not had the first of their calls before eleven in the morning.  I have visited at midday and found him with a tray containing his half eaten breakfast still in front of him because he could not finish it before the carer left. 

It also upsets me that studies are always being done by experts even though we all know that older people need time.  Who is paying and what is the point of paying for all these studies if the results are not going to be taken on board?

I know it is not the fault of the young lady or man who visits and does the caring but someone needs to take a good look at the care industry in general. 

PA, Lewisham

LPG found some more recent information posted on the way that carers feel about their jobs.

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