A quick few words to Barnet Homes

I've been passed a stack of correspondence by a Mr Ron Muller who is a resident of Barnet Homes. He's been a tenant for some considerable time. I've a question for any of the Barnet Homes people who's responses I've read several times over. The rest of this blog is directed at the Barnet Homes staff who dealt with Mr Muller (and anyone else who wants to know how we treat our elderly in Barnet).

What is so unreasonable about Mr Muller saying he would prefer to take a bath rather than a shower, when every other tenant, who has indicated that they would prefer a shower has had their needs met?

Surely those of us in the twilight years of our lives deserve a little bit of respect and dignity. Are we so uncaring a society that we cannot budge just a little bit. I'd guess that by the time all of the admin & legal effort was taken into account, it would have been far cheaper to let him carry on having a bath. I hope that by the time I'm old enough to go into sheltered accomodation, society has developed enough to value our senior citizens and allow them the odd luxury, that most of us take for granted. Is it really that bad to say "actually, I'd prefer a bath to a shower"?

I help out with a charity which deals with the disabled. Sometimes I end up pushing around a person in a wheelchair. If we enter a shop, the assistant invariably talks to the person pushing the wheelchair, as if the person in it is a vegetable. The tone of your correspondence certainly reminds me of this mindset. Your comments about Mr Mullers situation rather shocked me.

You say :- "these decisions were made in full consultation with residents at the coffee mornings". This gives the game away. Mr Muller isn't a fool, he gave his opinion and was ignored. How would you feel if you had decision about your living arrangements imposed on you and when you queried it you were told that your neighbours had decided at a coffee morning?

I am appalled by the attitudes of a society where the vulnerable are so disenfranchised. Just because people can occasionally be a bit "difficult" makes them no less deserving of respect.

It seems to me that in far too many decisions concerning the elderly and the vulnerable in Barnet, the one group that are compeletely excluded from having a say are those who actually have to live with the repercussions of these decisions. This is true of Barnet Council with it's decision to scrap sheltered housing wardens. It is just as true with Barnet Homes decision to deprive an old boy of his preferred method of maintaining personal hygene.