More frequently now we are hearing about the plight of the 700,000 people suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia in the UK, and the shocking situation carers and vulnerable families who are caring for those with the illness at home are going through. When you have worked and saved all your life and find yourself needing to go into a care home that can cost £40,000 per year it is disgraceful to be forced to face the fact that because the threshold for means testing is so low you are actually being penalised for having a brain disease, it is not a part of the natural aging process it is a brain disease. The quality of care is inadequate as is any help in the community, and it is now vital for the government to address this situation before the growing number of dementia and Alzheimer’s sufferers reach an expected million in just over a decade.

Who is going to care for these people? It is being left up to partners and family members who are living a nightmare to cope, and are forced to give up their jobs and their lives. More than 400,000 Alzheimer’s and dementia patients live in the community and thousands are cared for by their partners and relatives. This is not just the story of one carer but of thousands caring for all sufferers both young and old with disabilities. There are many horrendous personal experiences that carers are facing to read about on forums and links on the internet, and as reported in the national news. Why is this being cruelly ignored and constantly being put on a back burner. When carers require help the majority of times they are passed on to authorities who are under funded, under staffed, and some are not even adequately qualified. Seven million carers are waiting for an answer.

There is no such thing as retirement for a carer, there are many husbands and wives well past retirement age who when one partner is diagnosed with dementia the carers then find themselves with total responsibility, in many cases they then have to take courses in order be able to nurse their loved ones who have disabilities and mental problems, and for this valuable experience and devoted time they get a carers allowance of £50.55 which does not in any way cover the cost of many needs, and those who receive a state pension do not get it at all, also if working you must not earn over £95 per week and must not get one of a list of other benefits, if the patient suffered from cancer all the help would be free. www.carersuk.org/Information/Financialhelp/CarersAllowance

There are situations where carers get no payment at all if they are slightly above the means test. The carers work is difficult enough particularly when they are elderly and sometimes ill themselves caused by over work, stress, and long sleepless nights, it is difficult for them to find the time due to caring, transport problems, finding sitters, and their own health problems to find the energy to even get to carers meetings and make their needs known, and carers feel this is taken advantage of. The government strategy planned over a period of the next five to ten years mentions no workable plan as yet to help carers. There are carers meetings all over the country to discuss what they think would help them, and this is a difficulty considering each case is individual with individual needs. When you have worked and saved all your life to find yourself a carer in this situation it is heart breaking, and is wrong to be penalised financially or in any other way.

It is time now for the government to stop taking advantage of carers who feel emotionally blackmailed into putting up with an unfair situation while they are saving the government approximately eighty seven billion pounds per year; it is time now that carer’s rights were addressed, not in eighteen months, two years, or five or ten years time.

If the government want to save money in the long run pay carers a reasonable and fair amount for what they do, give them the help they desperately need and the concern that their health deserves. Helping the person they are caring for helps the carer to a certain extent, but not the carer to improve their own personal life due to lack of money and lack of help. If more respite was available many carers still have to pay for temporary care for their loved one if they have to go into a care home, which can be up to £500 per week, as well as paying for themselves if they want to take a break away, If they were paid sensibly and had more help there would be less need for patients to go into a care home when their illness progresses, as long as the greed of exorbitant amounts of money being paid by people who have to sell their homes and use their life savings to survive, the care situation will continue and get worse. And the health service continue to be over loaded as more carers become ill themselves Whether you are a carer or not particularly in the UK (but also worldwide) and have a social conscience and compassion, do something and make the carers plight known in any way you can. What the government has done so far is definitely not enough, Gordon Brown admits that not enough has been done, carers don’t want empty words and platitudes they want action.

More Information added today 3 September 2008
Recently it was reported in the national news that the government is committed to improving financial help for carers, this could cost £130 million for support allowance annually and an extra £2 billion a year for caring costs, considering that carers save the UK 87 billion a year. Carers do not want to hear anyone say that money is tight and that it is difficult to find the financial help that carers need, 3 or 4 billion is too little in comparison to 87 billion. Older carers well past retirement age are still unpaid workers, too many with only their state pension of £50.55 per week.

Although it is recognised that each individual caring situation is different, this should still be taken into consideration what ever the cost. There is no mention of those carers who are taking care of those with mental disabilities which affect the sufferers in many different ways, and also the carers who are taking care of them as it involves great stress on the carer because of the different behaviours of the sufferers, some who have very erratic behaviour due to their condition, dementia or other. This should be assessed individually and considered immediately as needs be now at what ever cost.

Six million carers in the UK need help now.