Take heed of
sheltered housing warnings
Resident
wardens are fast becoming a thing of the past in sheltered
housing. And campaigning Chelmsford tenant Vernon
Yarker has been dogged in his warnings of what the result
of their removal will be.
Over
the past year or so, he has bombarded the
pivotal people in sheltered housing and older people’s
organisations with these warnings. He has
also flooded the crammed inboxes of civil
servants, politicians and news organisations with a
constant flow of ever-forceful streams of consciousness to
drive home his message that without the support of live-in
wardens, sheltered housing tenants face a downward spiral
of deteriorating health, hazards and
isolation.
To
many of Mr Yarker’s recipients, up to their eyes as they
probably were in the complexities of policy making or
furthering their organisation’s multi-pronged agenda, his
writings would probably have been dismissed as
scaremongering, polarised or short-sighted. Ah, but he is
not seeing the whole Supporting People picture, they would
have murmured. He’s not seeing our intricate outcomes
framework, our elaborate procurement and efficiency
strategies that we have spent hours sweating over
for maximum Powerpoint impact. What does he know of
all this? He is just a sheltered
tenant.
And
I would cast my eye over Mr Yarker’s correspondence with an
impatient journalistic eye and sigh. Yeah, yeah, I’d say.
But where’s the story? Where’s the mass protest that you
are trying to whip up? Where are the deaths that you’re
warning of?
Over
the past few weeks, I, and I hope others too, have sat up
and listened more closely to Mr Yarker. Two deaths of
sheltered housing tenants have emerged. One lady in Derby
died in hospital of hypothermia after lying undiscovered
for several days after a fall. And in Bristol, a war
veteran was found dead in his flat after not being
seen for days. Another man in Norfolk is recovering after
being found lying newly-bearded in his own excrement on the
floor. The two residents who lost their lives lived in
blocks where resident wardens had been phased out. In the
fhird case, the on-site warden had been on long-term sick
leave.
Mr
Yarker has been networking hard over the last few
months. Sheltered tenants across the country, or their
concerned relatives, have been making contact with him
through his website
shelteredhousinguk.com.
Increasingly, they are experiencing for themselves the
changes they feared. And little by little, they are coming
forward to tell their stories.
How
many more deaths or near-misses will it take before those
pulling at the Supporting People pursestrings will decide
it’s time to act? The depressing reality is we’ll probably
have to wait and see.
Supporting
People managers have many arguments up their sleeves to
throw back at Mr Yarker. Their depleting budgets means
housing support money has to be rationed and
targeted at the frailest and least able. Why should
those in sheltered housing hog all the support when they
don’t all need it and often don’t want it, they
argue.
But
for many of Mr Yarker’s correspondents, resident wardens
were the reason they chose sheltered housing in the first
place. Some would argue these visits are the reason
they’re still there and not in a care home or
hospital.
Cash-strapped
councils don’t have an easy task on their hands
in supporting older people with dwindling
budgets. But older people can hold solutions, not just
warnings. Many have decades of experience in creative
ways of making money go further. Hackney sheltered
housing tenant Alan Hindley believes the talents of
resident wardens in bringing residents together and
nurturing their latent talents could have community
fundraising potential.
Councils
will have to start listening, or they may find themselves
being deafened. Revolution has had many sounds over the
ages, but in sheltered housing today, it is the gentle
tapping of elderly fingers on keyboards. If things are
left as they are, their numbers will grow. And this
gentle taptap of protest will build up to a
thunderous pounding.
sayThe
owner of this website is a voluntary member of Age Concern
England's,
Sheltered Housing Advisory Residents Panel
(SHARP).
Giving voluntary assistance to Help the Aged , who are in
the process of commissioning a report
titled:
"Impact Of Floating Support On Older People"
2007/2008
(plus Local focus groups)
A
blog by 'Emily Rogers'.
Emily Rogers is a journalist for the authoritative
publication 'Inside Housing'
Mon, 4 Aug 2008