Friday My name is Rita and I’m a Care Worker. I have different names – some call me a carer or a home carer, Maude at number 9 calls me her ‘girl,’ Nancy at number 15 just calls me ‘you,’ Richard (that’s my son) calls me Mum and Tim – he’s my husband or used … Continue reading Home Care Diary – Rita

Thursday I went to see Lady _ today. I’ll call her Lady Gaga but that’s not her real name obviously and nor is she; gaga I mean. My Mum used to describe people as gaga when I was little. ‘I’ve been to see your Auntie Mo,’ she’d say. ‘She’s completely gaga now.’ I thought it … Continue reading Home Care Diary – Lady Gaga

Wednesday Yesterday I found a gun. Let me tell you how it happened. I’ve been visiting Dudley for a few weeks now. Dudley lives in __ in a Council flat in a tower block on the third floor. It’s one of those tower blocks like you seen in a Channel 5 documentary; lots of people … Continue reading Home Care Diary – Gun

Monday Families – don’t get me started! I know everyone loves their Mum and Dad – well, nearly everyone, my Dad walked out on my Mum when I was 7 and I never saw him again – and their Gran and Graddad and wants the best for them but really. I know many of my … Continue reading Home Care Diary – Families

Friday Something funny happened yesterday. I wanted to tell you about it. It wasn’t funny really, it was actually sad and a bit tragic and horrible but it was still a bit funny – I’ll let you be Judge Judy. I had a visit to see Albert at 9am. I go to him a lot. … Continue reading Home Care Diary – Dentures

Thursday I didn’t have a good day today. One of my Service Users died. It sounds very cold when you say it like that, doesn’t it? Her name was Rose and she was 97. I’ve been going to see her for about 6 months. She was very independent; she lived in a little 1 bedroom … Continue reading Home Care Diary – Death

Tuesday My agency is being inspected by the Care Quality Commission. We got a text from the agency yesterday which said they’d had notification of an inspection and CQC Inspectors might want to talk to us. Apparently they’ve also got ‘experts by experience’ whatever that is. Well, all I can say is I hope they … Continue reading Home Care Diary – CQC

Friday Well, it’s finally happened. I didn’t think it would come to this but my agency is closing down. I suppose I thought that this company would survive – you hear about all the problems with home care businesses and they tell you about being short of money but somehow you don’t really believe it … Continue reading Home Care Diary – Closing Down

Wednesday I got into trouble yesterday. I go and see a gentleman called Bill who lives in some flats. I’ve been going to him for years; I think I’m the only carer he sees. He’s a lovely man; very talkative and very knowledgeable about the world. He listens to the radio all the time – … Continue reading Home Care Diary – The Affair

Home care is in crisis because of a number of factors, the chief of which is that there is not enough money in the system to deliver an effective service. Budgets for local government have been cut and they in turn have reduced the amount of money that they spend on social care. Most social … Continue reading Home Care – The Problem