How to Get the Perfect Social Care Package for You through Direct Payments! » Uncategorized

Direct Payments For Health Care…Fiiinally!

gbaker — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:44:09 +0000

Direct Payments have been the one majorly positive development in health and social care in a long time, and now it looks like the NHS has finally sat up and taken notice!

I’ve had Direct Payments for years, not at anything like the level of funding I have now, but, nonetheless, I’ve been signed up since I was about 12.

It is only because of Direct Payments that I can look forward to gaining more and more independence as time progresses, but getting the level of funding I need was no easy ride; the means tested world of social care is, as I’m sure many of you are aware, hard to navigate, illogical and unforgiving!

However, I was one of the lucky ones, many people get lost in the system and end up never getting the help they need.

Of course, Social Services and local authorities have a duty to make sure they only spend their (often extremely) limited funds on people who really need them and so it would be unfair to place the blame on them.

The fact is: there isn’t enough money.

Direct Payments from the NHS have always seemed, at least to me, to be the way forward for providing care to the most severely disabled and now it seems like this might become a reality.

The “Health Bill” which is currently before parliament will allow the NHS to provide people with a ‘Personal Health Budget’ AKA Direct Payments.

Hopefully, this will leads to many more people being able to enjoy the freedoms I do, freedoms they deserve!

What really interests, and surprises, me though, is it appears these ‘Personal Health Budgets’ can be used to pay for things other than personal care and all that stuff.

A case study on the Department of Health’s website mentions how one lady who took part in a trial of the new system used her budget to pay for hydrotherapy.

Now that might seem perfectly normal, but, if she can get hydrotherapy because it relieves her pain, does that mean if I had an NHS budget, that I would be able to get funding for a physiotherpist, in addition to my PAs?

If that’s the case, it opens a whole can of, quite frankly awesome, worms because people who currently don’t receive essential services (like physiotherapy) due to a lack of funding, may be able to do so!

Where the money would come from I don’t know, but still, we can but hope!

Here’s a link the Department of Health’s website: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/News/Recentstories/DH_107497

Bye for now,

George

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Just thought I’d give you the low down…

gbaker — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:25:10 +0000

Hi guys,

Just thought I’d let you know I got my Amazon Kindle (see my last post for details) a couple of days ago and I’m hooked on the thing!

I’ve read two books in three days FAR more than I usually read and, in fact, I’ve had to restrict myself because I’ve got so much else to do.

If you find it hard to hold a book, turn pages or even just hate having to carry books around, its definately worth the money.

It can hold up to 1500 full size books, you can download download them using the kindles own wireless connection and it does only take about 1 minute to download a whole book, no joke!

Plus, to my surprise, most books are very reasonably priced. A lot of them, even popular ones, are only about $5 (the kindle store works in dollars), which is roughly £3 or so.

Anyway, that’s it for now, just thought I’d let ou know it case any of you are interested.

Be back soon,

George

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I Think You Might Like This!

gbaker — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:11:39 +0000

I must admit, this is a bit off topic, but it’s got me really exited and I think it could be useful for a lot of people so please bare with me while I explain why.

As somebody with limited movement in my arms and not much strength to hold things, readings book has always been a bit of a pain, so for much of my life I never really bothered.

The first time I remember actually reading a book for myself was during my English Literature course at college, which I only took because I seemed to be good at it. At secondary school I tended to just get away with extracts and remembering what the teachers said.

I enjoyed reading the course books, but had to have someone turn the pages for me and this makes the process a lot slower and more frustrating than you might expect.

Despite this I’ve developed a real thing for books, not so much fiction, but books about successful people, marketing and anything that will help me be the best I can be and avoid some of the painful mistakes people make in life!

To paraphrase Thomas Edison “I only got where I am by standing on the shoulders of giants“.

The thing is, as old fashioned as it sounds, I’ve realised that books are like a fountain of knowledge, you can learn anything you like from them.

Sure you can find a lot on the internet, but books are the most inexpensive and reliable source of information by far!

I only really started reading regularly last November and since then I’ve probably read 6 books, not many really, but I’ve learnt so many valuable things it’s unbelievable, far more than from my uni course.

There is no doubt that, apart from personal experience, reading (the right things) matures and educates you more than any other activity.

There are page-turning machines you can get hold of (I was lucky enough to be given one by a family friend) that operate by remote control and once they are set up they work extremely well.

The issues with those however, are the price tag (in the thousands), size (oddly, mine looks like one of those x-ray reader things) and the time it takes to set them up for different books.

Thus, imagine how excited I was this morning to find that Amazon are releasing their fabled “Kindle” in the UK!

For the uninitiated, the Kindle is an E-book reader that can store around 1500 books at once and connects over a wireless network to Amazon’s ebook store (wherever you are, for FREE) allowing you to download books whenever and wherever you like!

Even better, it only takes around 60 seconds to download a full length book!

Now, to be fair, each book costs around $10, so probably £7.50, which isn’t exactly cheap, but for those of us have mobility problems it is quite frankly a god send!

The Kindle itself is thinner than a pencil, and probably doesn’t weigh much more than an ipod, so a lot of people should at least find it easier than a book.

In addition, it also has a text reading function that will read books to you, so if you’re visually impaired (or just feeling lazy) you can get an E-book and audio book in one!

It does cost about $279, you have to order it from amazon.com, not amazon.co.uk, but for me it will be worth every penny!

Have a good one!

George

P.S. here’s a link to the kindle that works in the UK http://tinyurl.com/yevgvxj

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For carers and the elderly and disabled

gbaker — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 07:32:39 +0000

http://www.howtogetcare.com
A guide for carers teaching them how to get care for their elderly and disabled loved ones.

http://www.howtogetcare.com

Are you a carer?

If so, this video could be the answer to your prayers. I suspect that many of you are desperate to help the loved ones you care for gain some independence and I have the answer you’ve been looking for. I’ve been through the whole process myself and would like to give you the benefit of my experience.

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Carers Allowance For Carers of Disabled And Elderly People

gbaker — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:31:43 +0000

http://www.howtogetcare.com Have you ever wondered if you are eligible for carers allowance? For a FREE guide to health and social care, including carers allowance and related services, visit the website above.

http://www.howtogetcare.com offers a FREE guide to health and social care in Britain. It will be extremely useful to anyone trying to get social care or support for themselves or a loved one be they elderly or disabled. However, the guide may be not be FREE forever, so get it while you can!

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Social Care For The Elderly

gbaker — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:36:42 +0000

http://www.howtogetcare.com An Explanation Of How To Get Social Care And Support For The Elderly

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It’s just dawned on me: this is the quickest, least stressful and most effective way to find good care workers you actually like!

gbaker — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:04:08 +0000

I’ve spent ages, and I mean ages, over the past few years trying to find the right set of care workers who can administer the personal care I need without driving me crazy, stealing my stuff or just not turning up. I’ve put numerous adverts in local papers, at my old college, at hospitals and you know what, the main way I’ve found good employees is none of those. Most of the time I’ve found people through…

NETWORKING!

You know the old saying: it’s not what you know, but who you know? Well it’s true!

Only three of my eight current carer workers have come directly through advertising, the others have all either been people I know, or people who have been recommended to me. The fact is, most of the applicants you get from an advert in a local newspaper will be rubbish, full stop!

Sure, you can and will, find excellent employees through advertising, provided you’re persistent and phrase the advert right, and I’m not saying you shouldn’t try, in fact, you definitely should, but it often takes time, a long time. As with everything in life, the key is ‘to do as much as possible in the shortest time possible’ so never give up on advertising, it’s a valuable resource that finds people you might otherwise not consider.

BUT, at the same time, ask around, talk to your friends and family, get them to ask their friends and family, you’ll be surprised how many people come back and say ‘I was talking to so and so and they’re really interested and I’m sure they’d be great’. The best thing about networking is you, hopefully, get an honest and reliable reference which is a lot more than you get for advert applicants.

Having said how great networking is, there is one thing to be careful of.

Because it invariably means employing people who are known to your friends and family, you need to make sure nobody gets offended if it doesn’t work out with an employee. The best way is to, as always, be honest from the start about any problems, as well as the fact that if you have to get rid of someone it won’t be anything personal. From the very beginning, make it clear to both the person recommending a potential employee and that person themselves, that you can’t guarantee it will work out, explaining why this might be so.

That’s it for now folks!

See you soon,

George

‘Your personal health and social care guru’

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NHS does it again! – Judge rules two disabled people have the Direct Payments they rely on for independence replaced with shoddy and ridiculously expensive agency care over a simple technicality!

gbaker — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:03:39 +0000

I came across a very interesting report in The Independent today (link at the bottom)…

A judge has ruled that two disabled people who have been in receipt of Direct Payments will have this service replaced by inferior, and far more expensive, agency care funded by the NHS. This is all because a change in the law means people can no longer be funded by the NHS and social services, only one or the other, and the NHS cannot legally provided Direct Payments.

It is very rare for me to lose my head…but this time its war!

My family and I spent YEARS, LITERALLY YEARS, fighting to get the Direct Payments I NEED to live independently and it works f***ing great!!

Now however, it looks like, at the time of my next review, they might get taken away and replaced with agency care funded by the NHS.

Why I hear you ask, change something that isn’t broke, far from it in fact?

Well, for no other reason than an arbitrary and ill thought out change in the law of course, why else would they bother?!

I’ll tell you something now, it is beyond me how most of the decisions in the NHS and health and social care sector are made and sometimes it even makes me think:

“You know what – screw the NHS, it’s inefficient, ineffective and insanely expensive…let’s just have nationwide private healthcare instead…at least then the private businesses might compete with each other and give us more value for money!”

Why, in the name of common sense, would you decide, based on an arbitrary point of law, which just happens to be under review, that an arrangement which maintains people’s liberty and quality of life should be thrown away and replaced with one which does neither of those and is 3 times as expensive!

It makes no sense whatsoever!

Obviously, the point of the judicial system is to enforce the law, but equally, where the law is inadequate, unfair, or even just not cost effective, should judges not call for some sort of review, or at least point out the problems?

I would have thought that even the most heartless and ruthless government would have winced at the prospect of paying 3 times the cost for an inferior service, apparently not!

And we aren’t talking small numbers here; we are talking “MEGA BUCKS”!

It can cost 10s of thousands of pounds to fund a high maintenance Direct Payments package, so think how much a comparable service would cost from an agency!

Think about how much you pay in tax every year, in the case of a lot of people, their yearly tax contributions might not cover a 5^th of the cost of a big Direct Payments package, let alone an agency one!

I don’t care what anyone says, a problem of this nature, even from a purely economic perspective, should be sorted by a fast tracked change in the law, especially as it is widely agreed a change is necessary!

What is even more annoying is there is a perfect, and already legal, work around being championed by those in favour of disability rights, which may even be superior to Direct Payments, but few NHS trusts are supporting it!

The idea is that a third party acts as an agency that the NHS can then pay to administer people’s care, the difference is that this third party offers a service with the same values as Direct Payments. This would mean people could still choose their staff and would even not have to do all the paperwork anymore, because the agency would it…happy days!

Furthermore, there is already a bill before parliament, which is the result of a widely accredited report by Lord Darzi, which would legalise the use of Direct Payments by the NHS!

Unfortunately, assuming the bill is even passed, it is unlikely NHS “personal health budgets” as they are called, will be rolled out nationally before 2012, meaning we may well have to deal with this rubbish situation for at least 3 years.

Overall, I despair at this sorry state of affairs!
(Rhyme not intentional but left in to lighten the mood)

This court case could have been a prime opportunity to expose the shortcomings of health and social care in the UK. Instead, it has served to reinforce the double standards, wastage and incompetence of those in charge!

What makes me even more frustrated is the vast majority of officials involved in this system want to make things better; they are just stopped at every turn by the short-sightedness of those controlling the purse strings!

It’s time this was recognised as a large, yet unnecessary and fixable issue which has the potential to be turned on its head and used as a springboard to improve the lives of a huge number of vulnerable people!

In my view, if they were used correctly, NHS “personal health budgets” could be used to great effect and could not only save a huge amount of money, but also pave the way for new and innovative home treatment of people who would otherwise occupy an extremely expensive and much sought after hospital bed.

I will do everything I can to make sure I don’t lose my Direct Payments and not because I’m on some sort of moral crusade, but as a matter of simple self preservation!

George.

“Your Personal Health and Social Care Guru”

Link to The Indpendent Report => Click here

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Thanks to the BBC for Inviting Me to Discuss Social Care

gbaker — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:24:20 +0000

I guess a lot of you heard me on the BBC Friday before last.

Just wanted to say a very quick thank you to all and in particular Charlie Crocker for inviting me along to discuss How to Get Care, the challenges, the solutions and of course my new book.

I’ve had some fantastic feedback and thanks to all of you who have pre-registered for my new book “How To: Secure the Perfect Care Package!”…

Keep your eyes peeled!

It’ll be released soon!

George.

“Your Personal Social Care Guru”

PS: Any questions, comments, post them here.

PPS: If you’re not yet on the pre-release list, simply register on this site in the box to the right and I’ll send you all the details as soon as it’s released.

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