Monthly Archives: January 2010
Murdered for Medication
I saw this story on the Guardian website and was amazed that it was the first I heard of it.
Rachel Baker, the manager of Parkfields Nursing Home is on trial accused of murdering two women who were in her charge, and stealing their prescription medication that she was addicted to.
Baker, 44, who ran the Parkfields care home in Butleigh near Glastonbury, Somerset, became addicted to drugs, including heroin, after being prescribed painkillers for migraines. She allegedly fed her addiction by “diverting” drugs prescribed for residents at the care home. She either stole the drugs from residents who needed them or exaggerated or made up symptoms so that drugs the elderly people did not really need were prescribed.
Baker has admitted eight charges of possessing controlled drugs and one of intending to pervert the course of justice. She denies the murders.
Just imagine the coverage if the victims had been 5 and 7 years old rather than 85 and 97 years old and that, I think, tells us all we need to know about society’s ageism.
Social Work Blog Awards
Active Social Work – a great blog of information and resources for social workers is promoting a series of awards for social work specific blogs.
The idea is that it will encompass 2010 – and nominations will be followed by a voting period.
There are different categories and blogs can be nominated for more than one category but they must be written for social workers or by a social worker.. . . . however nominations and voting is open to everyone.
One of the motivating factors was to help build and create a community amongst social work bloggers internationally which is always something I would wholeheartedly support.
I was starting to put together a list of my nominations but I keep thinking of more and more.. it’s hard to narrow down and decide so early in the year..
Anyway, I’d encourage people dropping by to amble over there and look at the process – - – and to check out the information on the blog which is a fine example of what can be achieved and is already proving itself to be an invaluable information source for me.
Left to die in Northamptonshire?
This is something of an ‘old’ story, so to speak, but last week, The Daily Mail commented on the tragic story of Mr and Mrs Randall – an couple aged 81 and 79 respectively – who were found dead in their home in Northamptonshire even though a concerned neighbour had alerted ‘social services’ on 1 December. The implication in the Mail article is that these calls for help were ignored and in the words of the Mail ‘nothing was done’.
I’m not saying that things didn’t go wrong – the truth is that an inquiry is to be carried out where more will be learnt about the chronology of events however the local Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph which has a leaked report explaining the cause of death of the Randalls.
As the article says
Jean Randall died in her bed as a result of cancer while her husband Derrick suffered a fatal heart attack.
A police report has shown wheelchair-bound Mrs Randall and her husband, who was her sole carer, passed away within such a small time of each other that it was impossible to say which of them died first.
The difficulty is that if a reclusive couple have mental capacity to refuse interventions, there is little that can be done – however cruel it can seem from the outside. I don’t know the circumstances of this particular case, apart from what has been reported though. Lots of things can affect capacity - one of the things that could be addressed, but likely won’t be, is the way that charging policies have also affected peoples’ wishes to accept services which can sometimes be seen as crucial – sometimes people refuse services that they think they will have to pay for, sometimes people just don’t want strangers coming in and giving care, sometimes it is a matter of negotiating a package of care and sometimes it is incompetent or rushed workers who don’t prioritise effectively. There are many reasons that things might not run as smoothly as they should and while many hold up their hands and look at who ‘should’ act, it is not always as obvious as it seems.
The article goes on to say that a preliminary report
‘.. gives a much clearer picture of the level of contact between health and social care agencies in the couple’s last days together, including visits from a phlebotomist, their GP, a social worker and numerous phone calls with organisations.’
Indeed, a local MP, Brian Binley, (not the same MP as the one quoted in the Mail – for the record’) ‘said that contrary to some media reports, the coroner had documented regular contact with Northamptonshire County Council social services, Age Concern and healthcare professionals on more than six occasions in a 17-day period leading up to Mr Randall’s last contact with outside help on Christmas Eve’
Although it is clear that things did not work as they should have, it is nigh on impossible to force care on people who do not want it and the fact that they lived together would have lowered the perceived risk levels. This isn’t to say that these kinds of stories should not happen – and hopefully an inquiry will provide lessons for us all - but it seems that the reality is not entirely as presented by the Daily Mail.
There’s a surprise.
Broken Britain?
Jan 25
Posted by cb
I was disheartened at how quickly the appalling story of Edlington – where two young boys, aged 10 and 11, under the care of the local authority attacked two other boys and subjected them to what surmounts as torture almost to the point of murder – turned into a party political debate about ‘Broken Britain’.
Firstly, there is no doubt that the case indicated is sickening. I’m sure that mistakes were made by professionals – as much as been said openly. But for the leader of the Conservative Party to extrapolate, as he did in a speech last week, that it indicates that society in Britain is ‘broken’ and lays the blame on the current government, reeks of mean-minded opportunism and a poor understanding and analysis of the country today.
We shouldn’t forgot what the previous Conservative government did to break society and to break Britain – from the sell-off of social housing which has led to increased overcrowding and a more desperate rush for the homes that are available to the miners strike and breaking of the industrial base of the north of England, leading to greater divides between the North and South and the promotion of the ‘me’ culture.
Cameron says we must as ask ‘deep questions about social breakdown. A few of the questions I would ask would be about the responsibility of government for every shocking story that emerges ghoulishly onto the front pages of the tabloids to foster the middle-class angst about the state of the country.
I’m not saying there is no effect of social policy on some of the ‘issues’ that are raising themselves but relating them to one particularly shocking story is at best ingenuous and at worst, a use of the victims for the benefit of party political gains.
I wonder how much Cameron, in his very cosy upper middle class ivory tower, has an understanding of poverty and how it affects and drives social mobility. It is hard for him to convince me of his desire to tackle poverty head on while he talks about policies that are based on the benefits to the middle classes that are so essential for the Conservative government – but this is the rhetoric that feeds perfectly to Surrey chattering classes.
‘Oh look at how awful ‘poor people’ are’. ‘The government is responsible’ ‘We should do something’ ‘See, dear, we have to find the money to send little Johnny to private school so he doesn’t meet yobs like this’ – it plays straight into the Mail reading crowd who can blame ‘other people’ and increasingly detach themselves from the rest of the population who might be less able to speak up or involve themselves in politics.
The Conservatives have accused some on the left of playing up ‘class war’ issues in the run up to the election and emphasising the private school backgrounds of most of the shadow cabinet. I say that Cameron’s rhetoric about ‘broken Britain’ plays this line absolutely. It doesn’t seem to be ‘his’ Britain that is broken. It is the Britain of the underclasses or ‘other people’. Surely by having a greater understanding of the societies in which these crimes take place and those many communities where no crimes take place but where poverty is pervasive, he would have a better idea of what the country needs, rather than writing it off as ‘Broken’ which is an easy shot.
I don’t think society is any more damaged than any generation has been. Crimes and awful crimes at that, have always taken place. We have more access to reporting them though. I work through all echelons of society from extreme and almost unbelieveable poverty to some pretty impressive townhouses that woudn’t fall short of a few million. I see pensioners with barely enough to eat and heat and having to make those choices on a real basis as well as retired stockbrokers and UN officials on very comfortable pensions. The pain and distress can be differently focussed but it exists in both just the same. I see much more that unites than divides – all the same being one community and one society.
Society today has much hope in it – and many good people. I think of the young, unemployed neighbours of a rather grouchy elderly woman I worked with who redecorated her home and visited her daily for a chat just because they didn’t have anything to do – I see some kids who pop into a local residential home to chat to the residents in exchange for a cup of tea and biscuits or the young lad who offers to do bits and pieces of shopping for his gran’s friend who doesn’t have any family of their own.
We don’t see this reported though. There is more good than bad in our society and in our young people. As a foster carer, I think of the young girl in the care of the local authority who is sitting in front of me as I type this and speaks of how she wants to make the world a better place and ‘help old people’ when she grows up (ahem. .I had no influence during our ‘what you want to be when you grow up?’ discussion.. cough.. cough) – but in her and the other children I have had the pleasure to have as guests in my home, I see a lot of hope for the future and for the society they grow up in and create for us to grow old in.
What is needed by the Conservative and the Labour Party is firm and distinct social policies which will not focus on particular crimes but rather on resources being distributed more towards those who need it and where it is be best used rather than creating a side show of crime for the middle classes to guff at.
There is no doubt that a lot can be done to make this country a better place to grow up and grow old. That doesn’t take as a baseline that all hope is lost at the moment though – but there’s nothing wrong in striving to make things better without writing off the society of today.
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Posted in personal, politics, social care, social issues, social work, work
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Tags: boys in edlington, britain today, cameron, david cameron, edlington, politics, social comment, social policy, society, sociology, uk, uk politics