Frail Brenda is banned from being friends with carers

By CHRIS POLLARD

Published: 07 Aug 2010

FRAIL Brenda Coker is set to spend her 80th birthday alone - after her carers were BANNED from being her friends.

The council staff had been helping her for 15 years and some even popped in to check on her when off duty.

But council bosses ruled these visits were "inappropriate".

Unmarried Brenda - whose only relative is an older brother living 150 miles away - said: "They've stopped my friends coming round for a cup of tea and a natter."

Brenda retired from nursing in 1995 when a blood disorder started affecting her bones.

She now walks with a frame after two hip replacements and has been fitted with a new shoulder, plastic splints in her hands and pins in her toes.

Brenda made friends with four carers in Milton Keynes, Bucks, who sometimes helped walk her dog or carry heavy shopping.

She wanted to celebrate her birthday in three weeks with them but cannot now invite them.

The council - which supplies a carer for 45 minutes each morning and evening - sent her a letter saying there were guidelines which cover "limits of responsibilities".

They advise carers "not to visit outside scheduled working hours".

Anne Walker, service manager for older people, wrote: "I therefore feel that although the visits from home carers were acts of genuine kindness they are not appropriate."

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-- The Sun 2010-08-07

How do such heartless people get into that line of work anyway?

Absolutely amazing what happens when people completely divorce their hearts from their minds.

Absolutely amazing what happens when people completely divorce their hearts from their minds.

Or turn a traditional community and social extensions into a controlled Nanny State.....

Sickening.

I'm just waiting for the day when I'm in my dotage and some council <deleted> thinks they can treat me like that. I shall give them the benefit of my extensive knowledge of gutter English.

I wonder if there is more to this than apparently shouts at you from a few paragraphs of that most illustrious volume of works and literary trail finder:

One being that there is sometimes a tendency for certain individuals to make hay of vulnerable people and relieve them of their last possesions when in a solitary state.

However on the face of it, it does seem an extraordinary statement, but does Walker know something we don't and is perhaps being more helpful than what at first appears?

I wonder if there is more to this than apparently shouts at you from a few paragraphs of that most illustrious volume of works and literary trail finder:

One being that there is sometimes a tendency for certain individuals to make hay of vulnerable people and relieve them of their last possesions when in a solitary state.

However on the face of it, it does seem an extraordinary statement, but does Walker know something we don't and is perhaps being more helpful than what at first appears?

It would have been good to have had Walker elaborate on her statement. You're right, Moss, there may be more than meets the eye to this story. Somehow I kind of doubt it.

The official statement, so often made with condolences and claims of understanding a plight and also usually with little to no explanation (to avoid having their twisted rationales examined more closely and perhaps contested openly) and the obvious legalese (guidelines for "limits of responsibilities") seems too typical of the attitude we so often hear from government. "Yes, we know it sounds cruel, and it probably is, but since you're all a stupid lot simply trust that your wise leaders (and self-appointed caretakers, er, sheepherders) truly know what's best for you. It's really all in our best interests."

I get the impression that hidden within this story are questions of liability, hence the legalese alluding to "limits of responsibility." Same old tired policy response, IMHO, based in fear as usual, where limits are placed on experience in another vain effort to somehow avoid something bad happening to someone. In this case I would assume they are attempting to protect themselves.

Perhaps I'm a bit cynical here but the closer I look at government and the political class over the years the more shockingly apparent their gross ineptitude and arrogance becomes. Anyone who has listened to Gerald Celente may appreciate his oft expressed rant regarding politicians, "They're not my leaders. How dare they consider themselves my leaders? They aren't qualified to lead me across the street." Here, here.