SONS and daughters of old age pensioners surviving under the stretched social services care system spoke of their worries this week.

One man, Ken Clarkson of Heysham, himself 70, said he wanted to go on the record to voice his concerns about the care of one 89-year-old woman who is a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic.

He claimed that the young female carers were sent to help with no idea that she had mental health problems; that she can have more than 30 different carers sent in a couple of weeks - despite needing routine; that carers don't show up at the appointed time because of the unreasonable demands placed on them by care bosses.

Mr Clarkson stressed that most of the carers were good and efficient as well as caring. He added: "The ones from the county council are generally better than those from the private care organisations the council hire but there are a lot of good carers out there. The problem is the system."

One woman, a daughter of a Morecambe pensioner and a social services carer herself for 25 years, said she had taken her immobile mother out of the social services system.

The daughter added that one carer argued she couldn't cook a plate of chips for her mother because she didn't know how to cook them. Another time the daughter called home to make sure that a carer had turned up while she was at work. No-one had and the pensioner was left immobile in bed until her grand-daughter could arrive.

The worried daughter added: "When I was a carer at one of the private organisations there was one old lady who wasn't really with it and was blind. They would put her to bed and out of the way and just tell her it was bedtime sometimes in the middle of the day. I want my mum to be treated properly. They don't like it when there's relatives around who can complain."

Last week a county council spokesman issued this statement: "Lancashire Social Services are unable to comment on individual cases. However, the type and timing of packages of care are always agreed with the service user following an assessment of need."

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