Reading the article in the Times today on this same report, it seems that the blame is being put on lack of communication between the two different services - the NHS and Social Welfare. Presumably these answer to different central ministries and ministers. Loads of buck passing and general 'NMP' (Not My Problem) going on.
From my own experience in Cancerworld, one of the things that really, really came home to me when my husband was critically ill in end stage was just how 'alone' one is (I felt far more 'alone' than I did coping with MIL, in fact). That means that all the 'information flow' is 'one way only' - ie, it comes from the NHS, to me (my husband was unconscious so totally out of it - hence my 'aloneness') (very scary)
Because the information flow is one way only, from the NHS to me, I had absolutely no way of 'assessing' the information I was given. With hindsight, of course, I can now see all sorts of things I should have asked, and done, and said, etc etc.
From the posts I read here, this happens over and over again in Carerworld - carers simply 'passively receive' what the NHS/SS tell them, without any knowledge of what the 'actual' situation is, or what their entitlements might be, etc etc etc.
As BB has pointed out, if even someone like her, with huge and long term experience of the NHS/SS etc, can still be 'caught out' in some situations, then the rest of us 'naïve users' of the service have little chance in knowing our rights, and what the 'correct procedures' are. Given that carers are under stress, that there is this endless grey area about whether carees are or are not 'legally capable' of making their own decisions (just wanting to go home, saying their daughter will look after them, not wanting to make a fuss or just being grateful for anything and everything, or not wanting 'charity' (!), etc etc), it just compounds the sense of helplessness and confusion that seem to overwhelm all too many Carers in Crisis (as the Sonia thread so horribly illustrates.) Add to the mix carers who have their own health problems, or carees with MH problems, helicopter relatives etc etc etc.....
I do appreciate there are limits to what an organisation like CUK can do, but lobbying for a Care Czar might be possible??? A Care Czar could then create the necessary 'hammer' that has worked well in Cancerworld.
We know the problem is only going to get worse, with the ageing population, increasing numbers of people with severe MH issues, and, of course, cut to services as well.
Sorry, I know I'm just saying what we all know already, and have done for ages. News articles are published, there is a flurry of 'outrage' then it all subsides back into the mud again.
But I do think a key problem is that hospitals have no incentive to carry out the necessary procedures for safe discharges, and every incentive not to! (ie, just to throw people out of hospital ASAP, to free up beds!). The incentives have to be reversed, as they have in Cancerworld with Two Week Wait targets, so that it is 'more unpleasant' for a hospital to breach than to non-breach.....
