After 3 years, hours on the phone and many emails my Carers Assessment was finally done last month. Today I received a copy.
Although I have deliberately refused to sin the permission to share form I now know that before the assessment the assessor contacted my son’s provider and after the assessment contacted them again and shared very sensitive information, again wihout permission!
Comments please?
@bowlingbun….wow….I have no words!! That’s definitely a DPA breach! You should put a complaint in and then if you’re not happy with their response report to the Information commissioners office for them to investigate. You must be fuming!
Yes. Hopping mad doesn’t begin to describe it. However I believe revenge is a dish best served cold, so will wait until the steam engine is back in the shed at the end of the week and compose a short and to the point letter.
This clown was incapable of finding my house for 40 minutes, although the postcode only covers a few houses. He was a mile away!
I always check an address before I collect anything on eBay, with the help of Google.
Had he confirmed his appointment by email I’d automatically given travelling directions.
“Going east from the pub it’s the third house on the right hand side”. Down a dead straight road.
The name is painted on a plaque between the upper windows and either side of the gateway!
@bowlingbun that’s definitely not a acceptable and as @Sue24 says a breach of the DPA. Nor surprised you were / are livid.
I suggest a quick word with the Information Commissioner’s Office…then the complaint.
@bowlingbun Totally understand your anger and yes, ‘revenge is a dish best served cold’ so stepping back before acting is sensible.
I know that you probably do not have much faith in politicians but is it worth contacting your local Councillor? MP? Just a thought? But yes, I would definitely put in an official complaint as it is a HUGE betrayal of trust and not professional or probably even legal? Might be worth contacting a solicitor as some do give half an hours free consultation.
BB it just gets worse, doesn’t it? They seem to revel in their own incompetence and inability to follow their own simple policies and abide by the law. These are the people who will use “Data Protection” to block you when you ask for something straight forward yet ignore it when it suits their purpose. They can’t have it both ways. Go for them - when you are cool, calm and collected. ALWAYS best to serve it up icy cold.
Friends say that when I am angry and shout they know it will blow over. When I go quiet and my voice is calm and low that is the time to be VERY worried as I am about to go for the jugular. I think you are similar!
Definitely put in a formal complaint and copy in the Information Commissioner to ‘kick them where it hurts’…..
Hope the journey home for the engine has been ‘smooth’ this morning and No 1 and G’son are not too wet - although, hopefully, they won’t be cold given they have a rather large boiler right in front of them all the way home!
Thanks Chris, M and I left the show at 6pm. Then found there had been a cloudburst / thunderstorm a mile south, road awash, more like a river, and a bridge notorious for flooding was flooded!
Route home number 2 was blocked by an accident, finally home via route number 3! Never seen anything like the rain in the UK, at one stage I had to stop briefly as my double speed wipers couldn’t clear the screen!
No.1 and grandson will leave the showground early tomorrow. I was told to “put the kettle on at 8am. He doesn’t realise how far away I can hear the distinctive jingle jangle of the gears.
I am hoarse/ losing my voice after so much talking loudly to make myself heard over the noise of a threshing drum and a baler which desperately needs some oil and grease - not ours I hasten to add.
Once the living van is home I’ll round up all the plates and dishes etc. we’ve used and put them all through the dishwasher on a long hot wash before they go back into hibernation. I never feel I get them really clean hand washing. There was so much dust the washing up water was brown when I’d finished!
Just a thought - and I am sure I am teaching you to suck eggs - Granny !!!
Does M have a pin board in his flat with photos of family on it? Could you make sure it’s covered with pics of him with the engines smiling and enjoying himself - with each of the family - so EVERYONE can see how much enjoyment he gets form being around the Engines. Then NO-ONE could say he doesn;t like them and there’s evidence that they are causing him to miss out if they don’t engage in things he enjoys and can be seen to be enjoying.
Just me sticking my oar in again!
I am not surprised you found flooded roads, I have only walked Buster a couple of times today and VERY short walks cos it’s been dreadful here.
I love the comment about knowing the “jingle jangle” of the Engine as it starts to lumber into earshot. I guess that would give plenty of time to boil a kettle and get the tea brewed and into mugs before they grind to a halt - lol
The washing of stuff reminds me of when I used to go off to shows with Military Vehicle Trust. We were very lucky to mostly get good weather but came home stinking (despite some showgrounds having showers - but we had to get in before 6am to avoid a stupidly long queue) with everything covered in dust and dirt. I recall one morning waking at 5.45 and seeing the milk van starting his rounds - I was only wearing a tatty old pair of shorts but grabbed my wallet and ran across the field to intercept him. What a sight I was trying to carry two pint bottles of milk and two pint bottles of orange juice - all wonderfully cold - without them touching my body. Afterwards I realised how foolish I’d been as I had no idea if there was glass or metal in the grass and I was also barefoot. However, that nicely chilled orange juice was delicious. Silly man missed most of the campers in that area as I was about the only one awake! Oh happy days - no trailer or van for us - it was either a tent; back of a Landie (I had a 101 Forward Control and then a Series 3) or under a vehicle (trying to avoid the oil leaks). Hmm - nope I couldn’t do that these days.
And after those thoughts my comfortable bed is now calling!
Chris, about 25 years ago M and his dad were on the front cover of a national magazine.
M driving, his dad steering, going up a hill at the Great Dorset Steam Fair. I had it enlarged to poster size and laminated so that he could show everyone. Then a member of staff had it trimmed down and framed to my annoyance, defeating my plan. (His tenancy says no holes to be made in the walls, totally ignored!).
There are photos of us and the engines all around his lounge, no one seems to realise they are OUR engines. I’ve had to point that out.
There is an 8ft shelf in the lounge with his collection of Mamod engines.
There is another shelf with countless DVD’s of traction engines at shows. M can’t read or write but from about 3 years onwards he could tell you the names of all the engines he’d seen, where, and who owned them. One day we were in a traffic queue behind an engine. All we could see was the chimney top and canopy roof. My husband couldn’t work out whose engine it was, but M did!
Every month he buys Vintage Spirit, M has known the Editor since he was little. Staff tried to stop him buying “that expensive magazine”, although it was in his care plan, but silly me for thinking they should read that. ( I buy Old Glory every month, then we swop when he comes home). Staff never talk to him about it, or see the photos of M when we’ve been at a show.
The steam roller won the cup for Best Roller at the Great Dorset Steam Fair, the year M and a friend were looking after it. M received the cup. The traction engine won the cup for best engine in the threshing area at GDSF.
There is a film on M’s tablet of M driving the engine, alone, for a mile down a private road.
I fell asleep before my shower tonight, completely shattered, too tired for a meal. There is a steadfast determination not to support M to enjoy his hobby, just expect me to do it all while the agency are being paid for those hours. Ignoring my consultant’s instruction to “live a stress free life in the slow lane, never to care for anyone ever again. Now awake for a cuppa.
Morning! I knew you would have all that in hand cos you’ve said how much M loves engines and for you not to have photos that he loves and give him happiness would be unthinkable - sorry to, as I said, teach you to suck eggs. I will put them away in the box now and practice that art in private!
It is frankly disgusting that the Carers don’t follow his Care Plan and give him the stimulation he needs.
On a side step - Steve here also visits someone I know and her husband heads off to the pub during his visits!! Husband has posted on a group that his wife has had an amazing turn for the better and is now chatty and engaging in life around her. That is - I am convinced - because someone (Steve) is spending time conversing with her and drawing her out, rather than as D was doing ‘telling her what to do and where to go etc’ Unfortunately D is not seeing WHY this improvement is happening which is a great shame. He’s also the one who posted that Steve is abandoning him for a week !!! (probably miffed cos he wouldn’t get pub time for a week). I hear that Steve pointed out to him that when he cared for his late wife he went 11 years without a holiday or one day off… Think on “D”… (That, incidentally, is why Steve makes such an amazing Professional Carer cos he has been on the other side of the fence and knows how lonely and upsetting it can be.
Can ANY Carer live a “stress free” life?
A friend of my brother had a Mamod - I thinkk a TE1 or TE1A. This was around 1966 and he got into trouble cos he would run it around a small car park next to their house and it kept “running away” and getting stuck under vehicles. Of course this was quit dangerous with the spirit burner getting close to fuel tanks which, in those days, were not as well protected as they are today, and not being able to get it out easily, anything could have happened. His mother finally banned him from playing with it I recall.