Normally I only visit the members forum, but I've just picked up on this thread.
Along with my wife I've been a carer for alnost 50 years, of course my wife did the bulk of the care work for our daughter Julie. Julie is 51 years of age and is severely disabled. Julie suffers from cerebral palsy. This took on a serious problem when she was unable to stand or even sit up without support. Julie can manage to feed herself, but continually drops things, she also has mild learning difficulties. Up until approx 14 years ago we took our daughter all over the World. Now of course we cannot travel anywhere
I'm 84 my wife being 81 our daughter will soon be 52, we all talk about our caring roles, but at the moment ours, or I should say my caring roll has become very difficult. My wife is not well and as in fact just returned home after a 5 day spell in hospital. She has been suffering with two large stones in her bile duct which have been causing excruciating pain, she was scheduled for an operation to remove these stones just prior to Christmas, but this was postponed at the last minute as the hospital said they had discovered the potential of an serious internal bleed. My wifes condition has worsened with losing over 5 stone in weight due to her refusing food a week ago she was rushed into hopital, which left me as the sole carer for our daughter,
I contacted Social Services saying I urgently required a carer to come mornings and evenings so as to see to my daughters hygine, despite continually contacting S.S we or I should say I are still not receiving any help from S.S, they say they are having difficulty in providing a carer. This has left me now having to see to my daughters toiletry needs, dressing/ undressing and fitting incontinant pads.
My wife is now back at home. but is still not able to help with Julie, really in conclusion payment for caring is the least of my problems at the moment I just need help which is not forthcoming as yet. I must admit if my wife was well enough she would also be shouting out loud about no finacial help with caring.