Skip to content

Challenges in Home Care for Mental Health in Hunstanton (4:33)

A resident describes an elderly neighbour with serious mental health problems who self-harms, is losing her sight and takes powerful, complex medication administered by carers four times daily. The neighbour received a £4,500 bill for care she did not realise she was being charged for, prompting the resident to contact a support worker, whose response involved Citizens Advice rather than needed face-to-face help; the issue is ongoing and she pays a token monthly amount. The resident highlights gaps in community mental health support, noting reliance on neighbours to check on vulnerable people despite living in ‘supported living’. One carer is praised for practical help, and crisis services have been involved. The discussion also mentions another resident with schizophrenia and hoarding creating fire risk, and reflects on the value—and limits—of citizen-led belonging and care.

There’s a lady that lives along the coridoor off to me.

Apparently, she was a nuisance, so they moved her.

She’s got mental health problems.

We have mental health problems, and she’s 70.

Her family live in Peterborough, and she self harms, and she’s on an absolute stack of drugs.

But she has a pair of carers come in four times a day to administer the drugs to make sure she takes them.

Cool.

Very cool, yes.

Which she is being charged for, but she wasn’t aware.

So she one day knocked on the door and said, “Can you help?” She’s losing her sight.

“Can you read this letter?” Bill for four and a half thousand quid.

Who was it to? But she wasn’t aware that she was being charged.

She thought it was just something set up.

And that’s why I feel strongly about risk care, the lack of care in the community for mental health, because they withdrew that, didn’t they? Spoke to our support worker, who then got in touch with her case manager, and then got somebody from Sittinghill care base to call her, whereas she probably needs- One-to-one …

one-to-one, face-to-face.

And it’s still ongoing, but she pays a token amount each month.

These drugs are very powerful, so she spends a lot of time asleep.

Yeah.

One of the carers, an absolute star, bought her some headphones because she hears voices, which is part of the condition, so that when she’s feeding back on the bottle, she puts headphones on, listens to music, so she doesn’t hear the voices.

But we try to include her in everything.

Abby, she needs a one-to-one support type care worker.

This care worker is absolutely wonderful, has called the crisis team many a time.

Mm-hmm.

And she has been for respite when she was sectioned not so long ago.

But that’s done.

It’s something like, in the parking morning, “Anybody seen her?” “No, we’re off on the door.” Mm.

You know.

“Are you all right?” “Yeah.” And it shouldn’t be Alice from Spirit saying, “Yeah.” But because there isn’t the support.

But again, going back to the title of the accommodation- Mm-hmm …

supported living.

It was as if the support is there for you to use.

Yeah.

But it’s there if you don’t want it.

It is available whether you want it or not.

But if you- Mm.

Yeah.

You’ve got all these fancy new care buddies.

But who can afford this? And people with specialist needs, like our neighbor, it should be free at the point of contact, shouldn’t it? What would work better? I think what would work better for that individual would be having allocated case worker.

Maybe coming once a week, touch base.

Community mental health nurses.

But they have such large caseloads.

There is another resident that is schizophrenic, isn’t taking the meds, is a hoarder.

And last time we had the fire inspection, they said he’s a danger to the rest of the flat.

What I’m also hearing is that the support that you’re providing and the community providing is providing really powerful support that a service would not be able to provide.

Yeah.

I think the power of creating belonging- Mm …

and people noticing when people aren’t there- Yeah …

is something that only citizens can do.

Yeah.

And you could come along to different training and stuff like that.

But I think the fact that you have a group of people who care- Mm …

done the quarry training, because that’s just about- No …

getting involved in helping.

Exactly.

But if there were a need for that- Yeah …

specific support, but what I’m hearing is you may be providing a lot more nurturing support than maybe- We are.

We are, but we are aware of the limitations.

Sure.

It’s all about sharing- Yeah …

your concerns, your problems.

She shared that with me about the bill, but I wouldn’t share that with one of the others, because it was just a one-to-one.

A resident describes an elderly neighbour with serious mental health problems who self-harms, is losing her sight and takes powerful, complex medication administered by carers four times daily.

The neighbour received a £4,500 bill for care she did not realise she was being charged for, prompting the resident to contact a support worker, whose response involved Citizens Advice rather than needed face-to-face help; the issue is ongoing and she pays a token monthly amount.

The resident highlights gaps in community mental health support, noting reliance on neighbours to check on vulnerable people despite living in ‘supported living’. One carer is praised for practical help, and crisis services have been involved. The discussion also mentions another resident with schizophrenia and hoarding creating fire risk, and reflects on the value—and limits—of citizen-led belonging and care.