213 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
213 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
culture
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tvandradio
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6670334
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-----
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# State of care homes in Britain are 'appalling' says Sir Gerry Robinson
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## The state of care homes for dementia sufferers in Britain is "downright
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appalling" according to a leading businessman and a former Labour donor.
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![Elderly person in care home][1]
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Dementia patients being failed by NHS and improvements are not being made fast
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enough, National Audit Office finds Photo: GETTY IMAGES
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[![Urmee Khan][2]][3]
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By [Urmee Khan][4], Digital and Media Correspondent 8:00AM GMT 28 Nov 2009
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[Comments][5]
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Sir Gerry Robinson, 61, has criticised the lack of professionals in the
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industry, describing the training required for staff as "alarmingly minimal".
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The former chairman of Granada, Allied Domecq, and the Arts Council, said that
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most people want to believe that their loved ones are in a "happy" home but
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actually, the "stark reality is that, for most people, that cosy picture is a
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long way from the truth."
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Dementia is estimated to affect an estimated 700,000 in Britain, at a cost of
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£1.7 billion a year.
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About 394,000 older people with conditions such as Alzheimer's were in
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residential care in 2008, where rooms and nursing care cost as much as £675 a
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week.
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Sir Gerry, in an article for the _Radio Times_ writes: "Some of the care
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provided is brilliant, but most of it is decidedly average and an alarming
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proportion is downright appalling.
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"It is widely accepted that, although the ability to memorise or record
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something can totally fail for dementia sufferers, the capacity to feel
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remains strong. They feel joy, excitement, pleasure, pain, hurt, anger,
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loneliness or hopelessness and feel them intensely. This makes our duty of
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care to them vital.
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"Why then do we so often leave them in soulless rooms, bored, with nothing to
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do and with little personal contact? The average time a dementia home resident
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spends in meaningful connection with another person is less than two minutes
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in six hours. From my experience in looking at homes, this statistic doesn't
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surprise me."
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Sir Gerry was one of one of four Labour donors who expressed their concerns
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with Gordon Brown's leadership in 2004 and said he would not be contributing
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any more money to the Labour party until there was a change of leader.
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His comments follow his new programme to be shown next month called _Can Gerry
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Robinson Fix...Dementia Care Homes_? where he visits homes across the country.
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The Irish businessman, in 2007, conducted his own six-month investigation into
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the problems involved in running the NHS. He set himself the task of reducing
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waiting lists at a Yorkshire hospital which was shown in a programme Can Gerry
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Robinson Fix the NHS?
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In the new programme, similar problems beset the country's care homes. He says
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that his father was the main motivation for doing the new programme, who died
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shortly after being placed in a care home.
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He said: "Two weeks after entering a care home, my father died. I had spent
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most of the previous day with him and felt closer to him than at any other
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time in our lives. My sense of the loss of him was, and indeed remains, far
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more powerful than I could ever have imagined.
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"Having been healthy all his life, my father at 82 emerged from a minor
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operation confused and lost. He had left reality behind and wandered in an
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often troubled world of his own. It was heartbreaking to deal with. I felt
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ashamed, hurt, angry and overwhelmingly sad all at the same time."
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He added: "Making the programme was perhaps a kind of closure for me, but I
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hope it will be a wake-up call. Many will be shocked by what they see, but it
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may lead us to do a better job for those who have loved us and who are now due
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a return."
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[X][6] Share & bookmark
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[What are these?][7]
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* Share: [Share][6] [ ][8] [ ][9]
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[Tweet][10]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/6670334/State-of-care-homes-in-
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Britain-are-appalling-says-Sir-Gerry-Robinson.html
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Telegraph
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## [TV and Radio][11]
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* ### [News »][12]
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* ### [Media »][13]
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* ### [Health News »][14]
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* ### [Urmee Khan »][15]
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[![TV Guide][16]][17]
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### [TV Guide UK: searchable TV listings][17]
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[![Paul Merton presents the Birth of Hollywood][18] ][19]
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### [Today's TV highlights][19]
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[![][20] ][21]
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### [Britain's Got Talent: where are they now?][21]
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[![][22] ][23]
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### [Doctor Who - the top ten best Doctors][23]
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[X][6] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][7]
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Share:
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* [ ][6]
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* [ ][8]
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* [ ][9]
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* [Tweet][10]
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* Advertisement
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![][24]
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telegraphuk
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Please enable JavaScript to view the [comments powered by Disqus.][25] [blog
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comments powered by Disqus][26]
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