Carers who make a difference (From Stroud News and Journal)

Carers who make a difference

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With an increasing elderly population and more people than ever choosing to be cared for in their own homes, care workers provide an indispensable service.

But in Gloucestershire, as in most other parts of the country, there is a shortage of care assistants.

However, despite the long hours and notoriously poor pay, caring for the elderly can be a rewarding job, providing older people with independence and security.

Reporter Alli Pyrah went out to see the valuable work that goes on every day by care assistants

Joyce Jones has worked as a care assistant for 11 years.

"I was brought up in a place like this," she says, as she shows me around the care home.

"My mother was a warden and I hated it. It wasn't until my own mother-in-law got ill and I started looking after her that I thought, 'why not?'.

"I wanted a job that fitted around the family. Now I wouldn't do anything else."

"We start at 8am. We help the client wash, get their breakfast, make sure they have had their medication, and that they are safe and are feeling well.

"We might visit anywhere between one and six times a day."

Joyce Farley, 85, is one client who benefits from the work of carers. She has been on dialysis since 1999, after being admitted to hospital with kidney problems.

Within a fortnight of being discharged from hospital she was offered a flat at Grange View, Uplands, a council-run care home.

She visits Gloucestershire Royal Hospital three times a week for dialysis and has two care visits a day.

"I like someone coming in, chatting, getting things done. They make my bed, get my breakfast, make my sandwiches," she said.

"A lot of girls come into this job thinking it is going to be 'tea and toast' but it is not like that," said Mrs Jones.

The work is hands-on, and much of it is very personal. A client might need help with tasks such as bathing and going to the toilet.

She works for McKinnon's, an independent health care provider contracted by Gloucestershire council.

The council directly employs about one third of its health care assistants. The remainder are provided by companies like McKinnon's.

But the use of independent health care providers has prompted much debate over issues such as continuity and quality of service.

Isabel Stanyon, 83, lives in the privately owned Crystal Fountain Village.

She was born in Dundee but lived in Painswick for most of her life. She is visited once a day by one of a number of care assistants but says she gets on with all of them and enjoys the variety.

"It was my decision to move here," she said, "because I was living in a big family house with a huge garden and I didn't like rattling around in the house and my garden being neglected.

"On my bad days I think 'oh, I wish I was at home', but on my good days I know I made the right choice."

She was one of the first to buy a house in the Crystal Fountain Village, a private care home, when it was built in 2000.

Isabel is typical of a lot of clients in that she is quite independent but needs help with small tasks such as making the bed, taking the rubbish out and getting into and out of the bath.

Knowing someone is coming in every day is reassuring.

"I hadn't much confidence in the little I could do but since I have come here I have come on in leaps and bounds," she said.

"I don't think many people really want to go into homes but it is just being rational enough to realise it is the best thing for you."