Bob B

When the Carer becomes the one in need of care As many of you may already know, last week I had a bad fall that required a short stay in hospital to repair a fractured humerus and dislocated shoulder. I can’t fault the hospital staff at all as every single one of them was fabulous, from the porter who took me up to the ward right through to the surgical team who repaired the damage. However, once home after the surgery it became a different story. I reached out to social services on the Tuesday, explained the situation and asked for support. Well, dear reader, as I’m sure you can imagine, no support was forthcoming and I’m still waiting on a call from the duty social worker which will very likely come once the support is no longer needed. So, I hear you ask, what happened next? We relied on the support of neighbours for a few days while I recovered to a point where I wasn’t in absolute agony every time I moved and then between my parents and I we worked up a plan where we can support each other until I’m fully recovered. Local authorities and carers support services really do need to start building contingency plans into any care/carer support plan so then when accidents happen the contingency plan can be quickly activated instead of leaving families to struggle with no support.