think life is bad?

[Bibio]

trust me its not.

i have been reduced to tears for what i have witnessed yesterday regarding the care of people with mental health problems and enough to inform every single MSP and MP for the Kirkcaldy and Fife area.

think of the worst pub you have been in that has sticky floors and not been decorated since before the smoking ban and you wont even come close to the conditions i have witnessed.

every single time i think of these poor souls and the conditions they have to stay in i get knots in my stomach and my eyes start welling up. i feel compassion and anger at the same time and its not very nice.

i feel like taking hold of the people responsible and kicking the utter shizz out of them.

i really thought that the attitude towards people with mental health problems had been addressed but it seams that even the authority's want to do nothing to help these people get better and keep them out of sight and forgotten about.

Get in touch with CQC.

They are the inspecting body.

[Bibio]

we shall see what the MP's do first. i have had a reply from one of them already and they sound rather concerned.

TBH the people i have emailed will do something about it or it's media time as the last thing Fife NHS need is a scandal like this.

the conditions really are appalling.

I hope for the sake of those people stuck in the care centre you've described, that you are over egging the description.
Sounds disgusting.

Good luck fighting the good fight.

[Mauler]

Sounds utterly atrocious. Best of luck, mate!

[timwilky]

What sort of place is it. Across the road from me is one of several larger houses run by the the Brothers of Charity. When care in the community became the norm they moved many of their residents out of Lisieux Hall into about 4 to a house with 24 hour carers etc.

OK I have never been in the place since Lisieux Hall bought it. But judging by the carers I have talked to, seen and talked to the residents etc. I have no doubt that their lives are one hell of a lot different to when they lived in what was essentially a large mental hospital

From what I have seen, the residents are extremely well cared for. Assisted to work (1 does Gardening, 2 work as street cleaners for the parish council etc) and are always clean and well turned out when on the street or even in the local pub. I regularly see tradesmen visit to undertake maintenance and repairs. Families visit etc.

I am willing to bet there are huge difference in how care is delivered, whether it comes from the local authority or through a charity whose role is social care.

[Jayneflakes]

Some times a really good shake up is what the care company needs, I worked in care for a while and saw a few horrible things caused by management that were in it for other reasons than caring. Once they had been replaced (removed and presented with legal action in some cases) things improved.

Care is hard because sometimes you can only do what the clients want and sometimes there is not the finding to do what they need. It broke my heart on a daily basis at one place I worked and filled me with hope at another.

I am not sure what I am saying here, but fighting the good fight is always worth it, but can be soul destroying at times.

Good luck Bibio, try not to carry too much of this.

[Fallout]

I like the idea of Bibio on a quest for justice. I think we should all come up with a superhero name. I vote for Sir Lancealot.

[dizzyblonde]

Originally Posted by timwilky

What sort of place is it. Across the road from me is one of several larger houses run by the the Brothers of Charity. When care in the community became the norm they moved many of their residents out of Lisieux Hall into about 4 to a house with 24 hour carers etc.

OK I have never been in the place since Lisieux Hall bought it. But judging by the carers I have talked to, seen and talked to the residents etc. I have no doubt that their lives are one hell of a lot different to when they lived in what was essentially a large mental hospital

From what I have seen, the residents are extremely well cared for. Assisted to work (1 does Gardening, 2 work as street cleaners for the parish council etc) and are always clean and well turned out when on the street or even in the local pub. I regularly see tradesmen visit to undertake maintenance and repairs. Families visit etc.

I am willing to bet there are huge difference in how care is delivered, whether it comes from the local authority or through a charity whose role is social care.

Its a shame Bibio has had to witness something that I know from experience is a very difficult field of work.

When Storths Hall institution(Hudds) closed its doors a great many years ago, the patients were assessed and some were put into care under the NHS in Northowram hospital(now also closed)
Some of the patients should have never been in an institution in the first place, however there they were, and in the early years that they were in Northowram, those people had quite a transformation in their care.

My mother and her colleagues worked tirelessly caring for those people. When Northowram closed, the unit was moved into a 'community' house in the Halifax area. Each and every one of those staff moved with their patients. My mother worked for 16 years in mental health(with the same patients). Some of her colleagues are still at the 'home'. Unfortunately, folk die, and those that are left go into needing geriatric care, which is not what the staff looking after these patients are qualified for and the job is turning into something totally different, and very difficult to administer. Also a few years back a private firm took over from the NHS, and ethics changed, how they wished care to be administered changed, and as pretty much all of the patients from Storths Hall had passed along the way, my mother left as she found it wasn't what she had wanted her job role to become.

In those years, many more patients have come through the doors, to be cared for 'in the community'. They have always been cared for by the same brilliant core team with a few additions along the way. They have been on holiday, taken abroad, shopping, days out, and treat like any other person should. In the early days of Northowram, and when I was quite young, my mother even brought her patients into our home. Something they weren't used to, but something they also desperately deserved.




On a side note, my brother works for the NHS. He works with mentally ill people too. Those people are on wards, not in homes, as they are very ill people. A range of folk who are so desperate they would rather jump off a bridge, or set fire to their bed. They too deserve good care. Thankfully my brother and his team are there for them

[Bibio]

thanks everyone.

the emails are now starting to come in and some you can tell are a bit 'it's not my concern but i'll pass it on' type and some are genuinely concerned. the CEO of Fife NHS is going to be getting a fair old number of calls today. but it's not the CEO of Fife NHS i want to go and inspect these premises it's people with power to make things happen. it's a step though and hopefully a step in the right direction.

it's funny how people start to listen when you mention 'health and safety'.