Who Cares About Those In Care?

I put off watching the Panorama expose on the residential unit in Bristol until a couple of days after it was aired. My fellow tweeters were understandably very vocal and the timeline was full of thoughts, opinions and plans of retribution. One of my Tweeps advised me not to watch it last thing at night as a sleepless night, due to outrage, would be sure to follow.

It was within the first few minutes of watching that I wanted to get in my car and drive straight down to the South West and deal out my own style of 'care'. I had a period of service in the Police Force and it was the first time since I left that I really wish I hadn't - just to have been the arresting officer of those people.

The suffering of those young people in that unit was totally and utterly deplorable. It was meant to be a place which gives a therapeutic environment, not one dictated by fear and violence.

I could go on and on about the whole thing, but this will not an isolated incident. It is something that will be going on in all kinds of care arenas, and not just the official ones either.

I am sure that we all like to think that those people employed to look after those who cannot look after themselves - for whatever reason - are nice people who really have a knack and passion for what they do. The reality is of course, that there are bad apples in every barrel, it just finding them before they cause damage to the other apples which is the challenge.

You will see from previous entries that we are reapplying to become foster carers after a break of 2 years. During our time of looking after children - some of which were very vulnerable and damaged - we heard stories of other carers treating the young people placed with them terribly.

We know that there are cases of the elderly being neglected in their own homes, residential homes and even on hospital wards. Those with learning difficulties or mental illnesses - as we have seen - are not fairing any better. No don't get me wrong, there are carers out there who are worth their weight in gold, they are inspirational, loving, caring and want the people who they are responsible for to have every opportunity possible and a high level of life quality.

These people hardly ever get mentioned or even acknowledged.

We are all have a responsibility for others, we have a duty to teach best practice and lead by example because if we don't the people looking after us in our old age (some who haven't even been born yet!)may be dishing out much of the same to us.