Tonight at 9pm BST ist he first of a two part Panorama programme called “Crisis in Care”

In the second of a two part series on the social care crisis,

Panorama exposes a chaotic system on the brink of crisis. With more and more care homes closing, and a national shortage of carers, social affairs correspondent

Alison Holt meets vulnerable people threatened with selling their homes to pay for their care, and their families battling the funding system.

She tells the devastating stories of elderly people with no-one for fight for them and asks why successive governments have failed to reform a system experienced by so many as unfair, confusing and sometimes cruel.

BBC Article

“Because he has Alzheimer’s, we were told Dad wouldn’t qualify for continuing healthcare, which the NHS would pay for. However, if he had cancer or another illness, it would.”

Since the introduction of Care in the Community, Social Care has gradually been outsourced to the private sector for the benefit of Shareholders and increasingly failing to meet the unmet needs of people needing Social Care,

The Alzheimer’s Society’s Fix Dementia Care Campaign sets out the case for a Dementia Fund:

” Our new report sets out the case for a Dementia Fund, including recommendations for Government to create a social care system that works for everyone.

Health and social care in England is stuck in the past. With the Green Paper delayed five times in two years, a Dementia Fund will shore up the system by giving people with dementia access to affordable and high quality care. The Dementia Fund gives us a way to break the deadlock on social care reform.

We know how urgent change is – we hear from people every day who have been forced to spend all of their savings on care.

With no social care Green Paper and limited parliamentary time to debate the issue given the extension to the Brexit timetable, the Dementia Fund is an immediate answer to the impasse. “

Time for Action

It’s time to call the Government and the Opposition to account over Social Care.

Last year over £400 million was spent on over 70,000 unnecessary Hospital admissions mainly because Social Care was unavailable.

Primary, Secondary and Social Care should be seamlessly integrated, funded by increased taxation, free at the point of need, regardless of age.

Removing the inequalities between chronic terminal diseases as laid bare via International Law by Article 25 of the The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

Recognising Dementia as a Cognitive Disability, as a chronic terminal disease and the universal rights under International Law of people living with Dementia is a Human Right:

” Disability is a human rights issue! I repeat: Disability is a human rights issue.”

So what could you do:

During and after the programmes please tweet MPs your comments.
If you use Twitter, include the following MPs

@philiphammonduk @MattHancock @cj_dinenage @jtomlinsonmp @johnmcdonnellmp @JonAshworth @KeeleyMP @MarshadeCordova

If you use Twitter copy and paste the following into additional tweets

@BBCPanorama @AlisonHoltBBC @3NDWG @S_D_W_G @johnpringdns @dis_politics @DisRightsUK @DisabilityLab @InvDisabilities @RiDC_UK @DisabilityUK @SocietyGuardian @MailOnline @Telegraph @skynewsniall @BBCNews

Use the Hashtag #FixDementiaCare?

and also use #ask3NDWG to share your stories

Contact your local MP
Write to your local CCG, Health and Wellbeing Board
Write to your local NHS Health and Social care Trust and local NHS Trust/Hospital
Write to national and local papers
If you are in receipt of Social Care or do not qualify – speak out
If a family member or friend are in receipt of Social Care or do not qualify – speak out
Below are the contact details for Ministers who could make a change, please write/email them