I got a reply to my email to Lana, the case manager, but she says there is nothing more she can do. I wonder. Could there be another nursing service? How much would it cost? Would it be any better? Is there some way the family can try to pick up the process when the nurses drop out?
Something that worries me a little is that she mentioned that Dr Humerus told her about dad's 'injured' rib. Of course, we signed away patient confidentiality when we agreed to let social services help us. The doctor is free to tell Lana anything she thinks she ought to know. But pretty soon the story will get around to everyone and will, possibly, be used to our disadvantage. I wish I had never mentioned it to Dr Humerus now. I am sure I didn't need to.
The social services are a mixed blessing. Instead of just thinking about how to deal with mum and dad, I now also spend rather a lot of time thinking about how to deal with the social services. We seem to have entered phase 2.
The first phase was characterised by them offering services which we didn't ask for, in place of those that we did request. The argument was that until mum and dad were 'comfortable' and 'familiar' with their careworkers, nothing else such as food preparation and other services would be accepted by them. What happened was that mum and dad simply got confused because they could see no reason why they needed companionship from strangers.
The current phase is different. The unwanted services have been withdrawn, and the originally requested ones - food and cleaning - have been instigated and are working well. The other difference is that instead of getting more than we asked for, we are getting less. I think we have come up against the limits of the system. We get the folllowing:
- cleaning - two hours per week (one visit)
- food preparation - two hours per week (over two visits)
- day care - ten hours per week (over two days)
- medicine - five visits a week
I suppose the other services that we need to mention are those that we do ourselves:
- shopping
- weekend evening meals
- bills and financial tasks
- lawn mowing (contracted out)
- laundry
- minor repairs
