Individual at the heart

Posted By: Dale Mulgrew
Date Posted: 07/09/2007

A society is judged on the way it cares and tends to the less able and disadvantaged among its population. There is a social, moral and ethical imperative for a society to provide for their needy, vulnerable and infirm; and it is my belief that in Rochdale there has been a solid reputation built around providing social care and services to such people who require it.

I am proud that we are able to offer support and assistance to individuals who are advanced in years, who suffer mental heath problems, who have learning disabilities, who are physically disabled and who have sensory impairments.

Without this lifeline of support and assistance that our social services give to these individuals, inevitably this would lead to dire consequences and a quality of life and an ability to function seriously jeopardised.

As a socially responsible council we need to make judgements soon on how we continue to provide care to one section of our community. The world is a fast moving and evolving place, and the demographics of our society are changing rapidly. This is no different in Rochdale.

The population as a whole is ageing and this will equate to a huge swell of people in the future relying on the council to support them through social services. The Government has recognised this potential time bomb and has recommended a new approach to providing social care to older people.

This is a philosophical shift and instead of the core mission at present of social care being always reactive to the needs of an individual, and as a consequence an ever increasing dependency results, the change will mean an individual will have that fundamental right to live an independent and liberated life with dignity, without a sole reliance on a social service. 

To engender these changes the council is forming a new service called a ‘re-ablement service.’

This has caused a reaction amongst certain sections of our community, but maybe what is being proposed has not been sufficiently explained?

Briefly this will mean that after an illness or an accident an individual will be assessed and placed into this new service for an intense six week period of rehab, with a clear focus of re-equipping the person with vital life skills so that a quality of life can, as near as possible, be fulfilled.

Of course, there will always be people who have a long term need and will not be suitable for this new support and rehabilitation regime and they will receive the necessary homecare they are entitled to; and often after a ‘re-ablement’ course a follow on care package will be considered to necessitate the helping along of an individual back to well-being.

As part of this agenda of change it is envisaged that the individual will have more of a say in how care is delivered and the option of self directing the care they require. This innovation of paying direct for the care you receive, instead of being directed, will be introduced as part of this transforming agenda, centred on the individual, so that they are empowered to choose and pay accordingly.

Much of the Council’s current homecare service is supplied by the independent sector, and to sit alongside the council’s new proposed service there will always be a need for a continuing and excellent homecare service.

Nevertheless there are ensuing challenges ahead which arise from change, for which I am confident we will succeed in meeting this transformation that all three political parties desire, which will place standards and the individual at the heart of this new thinking.