| When I was incapacitated after an accident many years ago I wasn't eligible for any free care (although the council sent round two people who probably knew two words of English to assess me and left saying 'we help we help' and when I heard nothing more I followed it up to be told that as I had more than the lowest level of savings they couldn't help me). Fair enough but it was a shame they didn't just tell me that. So I paid - quite a lot - for private care for a few weeks and despite telling each carer who was different almost every day what to do with frozen meals they still put the frozen meal that you were supposed to take out of its container into the oven still in its container, so I had a choice of ready meal a la plastic coating or starve. And a few items in the house went missing...I was fairly young and ony temporarily physically incapacitated but it really brought home that being vulnerable is not good, whether physically or mentally and in the case of the elderly who are both but have no relatives/good friends who can rally round, God help them. |