‘The smell would be even worse’, says Zoe, the social worker I’m shadowing for the week, ‘were it not for the clothes.’ Trying not to touch or breathe, I survey the mounds of sweaters and jeans and dresses interspersed across the bare floorboards. The place is a disaster — junk everywhere, filling the shelves, piling up the surfaces; the sound of broken taps from the kitchen; the living room a living ruin.
I’m on a housing estate in one of the Home Counties and we’ve been called out to see about putting in place a ‘preventative measure’ for Mrs R, a 90 year-old woman at risk of falls. Not having to leap Beecher’s Brook every time she needs a wash will reduce the likelihood of a hip fractures (bad for the NHS) — a logic even I can compute. So we’re there to measure up for a level-access shower.
But, in truth, measuring up for a shower feels like plugging a damn with a finger. Because Mrs R and her 40 year-old schizophrenic son who lives with her are evidently not coping well. Placing them in care — which might mean separating them — is an option. But, in Zoe’s view, ‘it’s not bad enough yet.’
That decision may be a close call. What’s a dead cert is that Zoe’s locality team are being increasingly overwhelmed with similar cases. As part of the Centre for Social Justice’s now two-year long review of older age poverty — which has released a report today — I’ve been placed with one of the most well-regarded, pioneering adult social services departments in the country. Yet even this one has a budget at breaking point and staff who are utterly swamped. ‘No more allocations’, the locality’s team leader radios back to HQ.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Don't miss out
Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.
UNLOCK ACCESSAlready a subscriber? Log in