Personal Budgets - the way forward?

hello Nicola- I am unsure if personal budgets are a way forward or just another pc " seemed like a good idea at the time" thing.
Whilst some PWLD may want this control ( or is it the families!) others will not cope. My main concern is in the training of staff and holding on to staff.
We have a recognised unmet health need partly because many carers do not recognise signs and symptoms of illness and I have a fear that this will increase if personal budgets, the employing of carers etc are not monitored carefully ( which then takes away some of the core ideals)

I disagree with you Mr Stewart.

Myself and many people I know have experienced the very same concerns in the public sector.. eg not recognising signs and symptoms of illness, employing of carers not monitored carefully, complaints not addressed progessively ect.

People with LD ect initial primary Carers are largely loved ones such as family, spouses and friends.. to attack them in this way is hurtfull. Why wouldnt they know all of what proffessionals know and more because of their intimate and personal experience? Why wouldnt they have the persons best interest at heart over and above a complete stranger?

I also take offence to your flippent remarks "another pc " seemed like a good idea at the time" thing"

On behalf of the great expence to the tax payer and the many members of the public that unpaid, contributed to the opinion forming the law that gives many disabled people and their carers real independance and freedom.
What then are our "core ideals"

Ms Reynolds I am not amazed at your amazement at the lack of knowledge about how to use PB's and Direct Payments.
There is very little imformation, encouragement and will from the public sector and too often family and carers are ostrasized from the care planning of their kin.

Please keep up the good work and make sure people know their rights and its not made too difficult for people to have a choice..

families are not administrators or officials, but they do have specialist knowledge of the people they care for and are not all criminals..
Why wouldnt families want the best for a loved one whom happens to have a learning disability? or any other disability for that matter.

Ms Barnfather- I do apologise if I offended you by my PC remark in my response to Nicola. I do however feel that the direct payment schemes have not been properly worked out, costed, or been allowed to be properly challenged. You may be in a particular circumstance where direct payments are an ideal way forward. My situations are not so easily solved by the DP systems. My comments on recognising illness etc comes from my involvement in many "unmet health needs" projects, where PWLD to not always receive the proper attention from "all" carers. I know that many families and good carers are first to recognise signs and symptoms, but not all. And this can be the same, and even worse for professionals in both social and health care. My aim is to improve knowledge wherever and to whoever I can. On a slightly different tack- but on the correct thread, the personal budgets may work for some. But when you take into consideration the issues of consent, employment issues and rights of employees etc, and finacial implications, tenancys and guardianship issues, you can , on occassion, create a detrimental situation where the client/patient is not fully at the centre of their own budgets. This is the only reason I mention the "PC" part. I have attended meetings recently where the personal budget scheme has been " sold" as the only way forward, and for some, this may be right. Sadly for others it has caused problems. Hopefully forums like this on will keep us all on track, and people with passion will continue to add to these sites
regards D

It may interest you to view the DVD produced by the Cheshire West and Chester LINk of an interview between those who know and those who want to know about personal budgets - this 8min DVD can be viewed on youtube by following the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkLdr5-En1A
LINks are to be found locally anywhere in England, they are run by the community for the community with the purpose to improve health and social care locally. Many LINks have organised local events and have information available on this and other subjects - look up your local LINk and give them a call. LINks are the forerunner of HealthWatch which should take over their work in April 2012. Find your local LINk at http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/links/Pages/links-make-it-happen.aspx

when i was in NY a friend introduced me to long term care insurance. here's his website http://www.completelongtermcare.com

it's a special form of insurance that targets care services for long term care needed by many seniors and people with disabilities or impairment.

i asked my friend why is it not practical to use personal funds. he said health care costs are terribly expensive so it must be well insured.