Rodmell and Southease

QUIZ EVENING: The date I’ve been given for the fantastic Quiz Evening, put on by Maureen and Candy is March 13. Once I get more details, I will write them in Parish Pump.

CARE HOMES: If you are looking for a care/nursing home for a family member, may I suggest you look into matters very carefully. I have been a carer for 27 years, having had my father with Alzheimer’s’ and Parkinson’s Disease, then my mother with Paranoiac Dementia and then Mike, my partner with various complications including having had a stroke. You learn a lot over the years, not all of it pleasant. When my father was in a nursing home in Hove, all was well until family money ran out. Then he had to share his room with another man, whose family taunted my mother upsetting her greatly, as they said their relative was getting everything free as he rented a house, had made sure he had every luxury he wanted not saving anything for the future and avoided work, whilst my parents had saved to buy their own house, always worked, paid taxes and saved for their future. My father ended up in Brighton General Hospital, where he died in a large ward on his own. The man he had shared with, then had the room to himself. My mother never got over this. Fortunately, I was able to get my mother into a lovely home in Kingston. Then due to her not being able to stay there as the lovely lady that ran it became ill, she was moved to Lime Tree House in Ringmer, where she was very happy. Unfortunately, she had to be moved to a nursing home in Peacehaven, which was deemed to be a better place for her to be dealt with by Social Services, she died soon after the move at nearly 97.

I know that people who have these awful illnesses such as my parents had, cannot be contained in their rooms due to Human Rights but I strongly feel even though my mother used to scream almost all the time near her end, that people of sound mind should be on a different floor or areas as they have too have Human Rights and should not have people walking into their room, laying on their bed and using their toilet as does happen in homes. I would suggest you ask to be shown around the entire home and make your own comments and conclusions. Also take note of the cleanliness and notice if there is a smell of urine. The people that run and work in these homes try their best, but more government support is needed. As one person I spoke to involved in care homes told me: ‘The rich will always be able to pay, whilst the middle classes take the brunt of those who don’t or won’t pay and work the system. They are getting more and more angry and fed up because they’ve done the right things in life, but feel they are being punished for it.’ I hear this is a lot at meetings I go to, so why don’t the government make it a fairer system?