You must read this article. Sound familiar?

[LaVerite]

From the Leicester Mercury. A distressing tale of one authority's disregard for accountability.

(Copy and paste link below into your browser, or Google search for "Scandal as care home spends severely disabled man’s money on women’s clothes, cosmetics and toys he could not use")

leicestermercury.co.uk/news...

[Sugar59]

It is indeed very distressing. Thank you for sharing this article.

[Tracidu]

Shocking state of afairs for this poor man , Ian could of had such a better life than this , His room could of been homely with no broken chair , he could of had a bit of social life or a holiday . I really dont understand how they can leave him like that and would they like thier family member to be treated this way .

CQC have been caught out like this too many times , giving care homes good reviews when we know things like this are happening too often . .

I have been too care homes and respite centres which have been in a terrible state , its as if disabled people dont warent nice things ?

Ians money built up didnt seem to have anything.. Its also very strange that the things that were bought didnt seem to be for him or his needs ,?.

Reading that artical didnt give me the feeling that anyone was being held properly accountable , and a bit of compensation was just a brush off . I may be wrong but its seems too little to late again .

I have court of protection for my son who lives with me , every year I have to fill out expenses forms and send in bank accounts and reciepts online . Its a hassle as he only gets his benefits , he has no savings or property , I cant see why this doent have to done in homes ,

I was told I was given the wrong advice as he didnt need COP with the little bit of money he has and he lives with me but its hard to get out of it now ..

.

They query everything and phone if they dont understand certain payments , like his nephews birthday presents,? I buy food and tioletries ect but they dont allow for them unless he has a seperate bill which doesnt make sence as we live together , its very intrusive . I have to explain everything so why care homes getaway with this type of things is beyond me . Its a Very worrying situation.

[LaVerite in reply to Tracidu]

Thank you Tracidu.

Certainly care homes have more control over what their charges spend, yet they are not subject to the scrutiny that you are experiencing, even on the smallest of things, so its much easier for a care home to 'milk' the vulnerable person's funds if they choose to do so.

It seems to me that care homes also appear to have no accountability when it comes to the other side of the income/expenditure "coin", so budgeting, saving or being prudent with purchases such as paying for goods and services that we would think were expensive or luxury items and therefore think twice about committing ourselves to. It would be so easy for a home to justify a purchase because (especially in the case of someone who cannot express themselves out of fear of questioning the system) "that was what the person wanted". Nobody (other than a relative) is there to check the reasonability of the purchase - presumably because if they do discover something questionable they would have to go through the assault course that Ian's sister had to - and that's enough to put any reasonable person off, especially if all they got for their efforts was a poor excuse for an apology.

It sounds like the care home is acting more like the parent of a (spoiled) child who is given everything (or anything) they ask for - without regard to its appropriateness, value or long-term impact.

Ideally there should be simple and effective options available for relatives if they find themselves in the same boat as Ian's sister.

Are there any?

[Tracidu in reply to LaVerite]

I agree with all you say and I hope I can be around to make sure my son has the best comfortable life possible when eventually I cant care for him at home anymore . Which will be the sadest thing ..The thing I worry about is that the authorities such as OPG dont go at this like a sledge hammer and make it more bureaucratic for people living at home with a parent , there is enough paper work and administration as it is .. Care homes are different and the thought of placing him with people that can abuse him in any way is horrendous .