‘I go there every day because I worry about the care mum is getting’
WHEN Daniel Lawrence wakes in the morning his first thought is the safety of his mother and what to expect when he visits that day.
Will she be clean? Will she be injured? Will she be alive? It’s a constant worry that eats away at the 57-year-old now full-time carer, who can’t work due to his mother Charmaine Cleare’s needs.
Mrs Cleare is by definition cared for by her local authority’s social services team and her story is shared by many across Wales and the rest of the UK.
She is 83 years old, has dementia, is disabled, and can no longer live independently. She pays Swansea Council’s social services to visit her just shy of six hours a week – but that is now not enough.
Mr Lawrence alleges the council’s adult social care service is not providing sufficient care for his mother in those six hours where he says staff help his mother wash and put a meal in the microwave.
Mr Lawrence has had enough and wants to move his mother into a care home but he has waited months for her to be transferred due to a lack of a social worker.
Mrs Cleare needs a social worker to provide a report of her physical and mental welfare before she can be accepted by a care home in Merthyr Tydfil which she desperately wants to move to.
“During a recent visit to my mother I found a puddle of her urine on the floor,” Mr Lawrence said. “She fell and broke her shoulder in January and was in respite with 24-hour care. Then she left and this care package was put together for her. But I worry it could happen again.”
On one occasion Mr Lawrence entered his mother’s flat in St Helen’s Road in the centre of Swansea to find she had pulled a fridge out to “clean”. During another visit he found his mother had attempted to flip a mattress but was not strong enough. On both occasions he claims his mother had asked care staff to do those jobs for her but her requests had been refused.
His fear is that his mother’s “nightmare” is set to continue for some time yet – with potentially devastating consequences.
“I feel like mum has been left in the mire and I’ve been left to deal with it,” he said. “But I can’t deal with it anymore. I’m at my wit’s end. I’ve had two heart attacks in the last two years, it’s a constant worry, and I’m losing sleep over what is happening with mum. I go there every day because I worry about the care she is getting.”
Mrs Cleare is a woman of principle with a strong faith as a Jehovah’s Witness and has travelled the world. But in the past few months Mr Lawrence says she has barely been able to function and no longer attends Bible groups or takes part in other activities which he is convinced she is capable of doing with support.
“It’s terrible,” he added. “Mum doesn’t eve n bother getting dressed anymore. There’s no continuity of care workers mum could have 15 different carers over the space of a week so she doesn’t build relationships with people. She’s now become very socially detached as a result.
“If I didn’t go around every day she would be living in squalor and if I wasn’t here to cook for her she’d be living on microwaved meals.
“All mum wants is to get into a care home and get on with doing things she enjoys in life. But until I am able to speak to a social worker and understand the help that is on offer for us we are stuck.”
Heartbreakingly Mrs Cleare’s case is not unusual. For various reasons, including overseas carers returning to their home nations as a result of Brexit, and the impact of coronavirus on an already struggling health service, people like Mrs Cleare are desperately awaiting better – and arguably just adequate – care.
In the main this is no fault of carers or providers. We have heard from a number of carers this week who are doing their utmost but find it impossible to provide the care they know vulnerable people need.
Simply put, the money isn’t there to facilitate it. Not only are carers not paid enough but they are often travelling long distances to visit many service users every day they can spend little time with, usually spaced out across a wide geographical area. Many of them are not paid for those journeys in expenses. Their days are filled with a need to frantically move onto the next job for little reward. Ultimately it is the vulnerable people they care for and their families who bear the brunt. Mr Lawrence is one of the millions of unpaid carers across the UK who prop up a system failing the people
it is meant to serve.
Scenes of ambulances queuing outside A&E departments have become commonplace as the NHS faces a mounting beds crisis as care homes and domiciliary care companies suffering unprecedented staff shortages are forced to stop taking vulnerable people.
While Mrs Cleare is not in hospital at the moment Mr Lawrence fears it is only a matter of time until she will be again if the current trend continues.
Head of the Welsh health service Dr Andrew Goodall has already predicted one of the worst winters for the NHS in living memory, saying as early as October that the service was facing winter pressures usually felt in January and February. On Thursday the Royal College of Emergency Medicine warned that patients in Welsh hospitals are dying because of overcrowding and delays.
And the Welsh NHS Confederation said that as many as 15% of hospital beds in Wales were occupied by people who were unable to leave as they were stuck waiting for either a care home space, care at home, or medical treatment at home. The confederation said up to 1,400 patients had been trapped in such a way in recent weels
Mario Kreft, the chair of Care Forum Wales, told us the problem is contributed to by a lack of respect for paid carers, which in turn heaps pressure on people like Mr Lawrence.
He explained the sector is “increasingly seeing a lack of domiciliary care capability” meaning vulnerable people like Mrs Cleare can now not be properly cared for at home.
“This is an incredibly serious issue we have been warning about for a long time,” he said. “These types of problems are being repeated across Wales with care homes and domiciliary care companies being devastated by the worst staffing crisis in living memory.
“The pressure on family carers is becoming totally unbearable for many. We are without doubt facing the most challenging winter in the history of the NHS.
“After 20 months or longer of
this almost endless pandemic we don’t have in the country enough people who are willing to work in the vocational sector of social care.
“Fundamentally our society does not respect the value that social care workers bring to our communities.”
On top of this Mr Kreft said care companies are jaded as a result of staff self-isolating with levels of Covid community transmission remaining high.
The Post understands multiple care companies across Wales have had to hand care of some service users to local authorities like Swansea Council because they have been unable to cope with demand. One of these providers is Right At Home Cardiff and Newport, who told Jenna Kearns her daily visits would be ending within days due to pressures on the company.
Ms Kearns, 30, who suffers with severe rheumatoid arthritis, was swiftly the responsibility of Newport Council, which she says struggled so much to find a care provider for her in Wales that every day carers are visiting her from England.
Under the care of Right At Home Ms Kearns, who lives in Langstone in Newport, had four visits a day – usually from the same one or two carers. But now she is lucky if she is visited twice a day and she relies on her family and friends for support.
“I’m currently with an alternative company temporarily and I know they are doing their best,” she said. “They’re coming from England just to do my calls at the moment. Social services couldn’t find any Walesbased companies to take me on so they’re coming from Bristol and Gloucester.
“I used to have four calls a day every day. Now, tomorrow for example, I have just one, so my auntie is coming to support me. It’s hard because I don’t know if I’m going to have someone here. My mum works full-time and it’s not like she can have lots of time off.
“I am struggling. It affects me mentally a lot. You lose motivation.
I’m constantly stressed.”
Despite the level of care being well below the standard she requires Ms Kearns says she feels sorry for carers and providers and understands their predicament.
“I do feel for them,” she said. “At the end of the day the clients should be comfortable with the carers and it’s a lot of work to be a good carer – it’s a very personable job and they should be paid more.
“It’s frustrating because there are so many people that need care and the level of care is a complete and utter shambles.
“I was with the same carers for seven years. It’s hard [to say goodbye to them]. I’m now building new relationships with my current carers but they’ll probably go as well. Emotionally it’s a lot to take.”
Managing director of Right At Home Joe Guishard said: “I think you’ll see more providers facing these challenges over the coming months. Unless something is done on a Uk-wide scale this will only get worse – leaving people without support and caregivers overstretched.
“At this moment in time we are at full capacity – we are unable to take on any further clients without overstretching our wonderful caregivers.
“Some politicians want to blame Covid-19 for the recruitment crisis and, while this certainly hasn’t helped, in truth the sector has been in crisis for a long time.
“This stems from the way carers are viewed by society. Care work is still described as ‘low-skilled’ work by the UK Government, carers often being trained nurses, or having undertaken ongoing and robust training. This isn’t just demeaning – it’s also demonstrably false.
“These attitudes understandably put people off making a career in care. People worry they will be undervalued and overworked.
“It’s time this country started acknowledging how vital carers are to the health and wellbeing of the whole country and started treating them with the same respect we show to our wonderful NHS workers – who do a very similar job.”
Last week care workers wrote to the Welsh Government issuing a complaint to ministers that they are still waiting for the introduction of the living wage, promised by Labour at May’s Senedd elections.
According to care workers’ union Unison most care in Wales is provided by the private sector and charities and typically the minimum wage is paid – which is £8.91 per hour.
Welsh Labour’s manifesto commitment for the Senedd elections promised carers would receive the living wage of £9.50 per hour, which is now £9.90 for 2021-22.
Carers say it is no wonder there are tens of thousands of vacancies across Wales for care work jobs while those left in the industry “struggle to survive”.
At All Care in Barry, which provides domiciliary care, managers are having to work on the ground because of a shortage of staff.
One manager said they had to work the whole of last weekend and then provide emergency cover on the Sunday night with one client “desperately unwell”.
Bridgend care worker Pat Jones said: “Promises are made by politicians seeking votes but the people at the sharp end are still waiting. We’re still on very low wages and locked in a struggle to survive.
“In the six months since the election our debts have increased, bills have rocketed, and corners have been cut from the family budget. That needn’t have happened if the living wage had been introduced as promised.
“We love the job we do but the government must recognise it’s time to move on from having social care on the cheap.
“It must invest in us as workers and in care services. We need the living wage now.”
In response, Julie Morgan, Deputy Minister for Social Services in Wales, said: “This pandemic will be the most difficult time anyone in social care or who is an unpaid carer has encountered and we are all indebted to you for your hard work and dedication to the people you care for.
“We meet regularly with local authorities and health boards and have provided £48m to help local authorities ease pressures in social care.
“Our strategy for unpaid carers ensures unpaid carers have access to the right information, advice, and support. This year we have provided an additional £10m to help unpaid carers cope during the pandemic.
“We have committed to delivering the real living wage for social care workers early in this Senedd term and we will continue to work with the Social Care Fair Work Forum on additional measures to improve employment and conditions within social care that go beyond pay.
“All workers should feel rewarded, respected, and represented and we will, through collective discussions, set out what good working practices should look like in social care
“We are committed to creating a stronger, better-paid workforce in social care but there are long-standing challenges in recruitment and retention which have been made worse by the pandemic. We are supporting Social Care Wales to make available free online introductory training in social care.
“We are supporting an extensive programme of advertising and social media work that will continue into the new year to increase recruitment into the sector. This follows similar activity in the summer and includes primetime TV, radio, and cinema advertising and other promotional social media and advertising activity. We know the previous TV adverts reached 65% of the adult population in Wales. This activity is designed to drive people to the national Wecare. Wales jobs portal where several hundred jobs are advertised.”
In response to Mrs Cleare’s case a spokesman for Swansea council said: “We have stayed in regular touch with Mrs Cleare and her family about her ongoing care and it’s expected that the assessment prior to a proposed move to a care home will be ready this week.
“Mrs Cleare’s package of care has been provided on our behalf by a private company since April 2021. They’ve told us they have not had any feedback from Mrs Cleare’s family about the care she’s received but they would be happy to discuss the situation if they were to get in touch.”