social worker assignment?

[Rosemary_1706]

I may have asked in an earlier post but would like to post this separately. Is a person receiving in-home long-term care through the LA assigned to a licensed social worker by the LA that is providing the care?

Mum hasn't been told if she has or. has not and the name and contact info for that person.

We have no contact info from the LA and have to go through the switchboard and ask for adult social services should we want to make contact. Is this normal?

[Melly1]

Hi Rosemary,
It is the same where we live. Folk are no longer allocated a long term social worker who gets to know them etc. They are only allocated a social worker for a brief period of time e.g. to do a care assessment and then the case is closed until it needs re opening again. I have had to liaise with various duty social workers re S's care due to cuts in care hours and it has been a nightmare.

Melly1

[jenny lucas]

It's yet another good reason why WE need to keep our own notes and records, so that WE can briefly 'summarise' the situation for the next new person assigned to the caree.

I found this to be highly useful when my husband was diagnosed with cancer - different doctors seem to be involved with different aspects (eg, two completely different doctors from his 'real' oncologist got involved when he was diagnosed with brain mets) - I used to keep all the medical notes and whenever we saw 'yet another' new doctor I simply outlined the 'story so far' to plot them in quickly and succinctly. Yes, I'm sure they did have their own medical records sent 'sideways through the system' but I wasn't going to rely on it! Besides, I could summarise swiftly and then start the appointment straight away - so many doctors only ever seemed to read my husband's notes when he was already sitting there, which to my mind wasted valuable appointment time!

[jenny lucas]

PS And when it comes to social workers, maybe it's a very good idea to show them that YOU know what is going on, and that you are 'on the case' yourself - AND can use their damn jargon. Of course they'll want to feel 'superior' (!), but it shows them they can't just spout jargon at you and flannel you.......!

[bowlingbun]

Hampshire has introduced a similar scheme, I keep telling everyone it's useless, I've wasted so many hours, yes, hours, telling a "call handler" what I want, who then goes through to the team, tells them what I want, usually wrongly, then I have to tell the team all over again!
At the moment, my son does have a care manager, but she has been sick for months and no replacement!

[susieq]

locked for usual reasons !