SOLD FOR £176,000 CARE COSTS: £220,000
WHEN my late mother, Peggy, was diagnosed with dementia, I couldn’t look after her as I already had to care at home for my husband, Jim, who had Alzheimer’s.
Sadly, she had to go into residential care, selling her lovely home in the Cotswolds in 2005 for £176,000 to pay for the costs.
After nine years in a home, all that money, as well as her pension, was eventually spent on her care — a total of approximately £220,000.
She died in 2015, having used up her entire savings on helping subsidise others funded by the local authority at reduced rates.
It is clear to everyone who has watched a loved-one battle with dementia that there simply isn’t enough money being spent on funding care.
It’s completely unfair that people can work hard all their lives and save up for a home — often by not going on holidays — and be penalised for it if they are diagnosed with dementia.
Paying thousands every year isn’t even a guarantee of good care. In 2008, I remember going to visit my mother and found a nasty note left by a nurse, telling her not to bang on the table.
I was absolutely disgusted, and there’s no sign that our care system is improving.
The only way we are going to fix the dementia care crisis is if our Government puts it at the top of its agenda.
Ever since my mother was diagnosed, politicians have made countless promises about how things are going to get better. But time after time, their words have proved meaningless.
One can only despair.
ANN REID, Eastbourne, East Sussex.