MUM Helena Kelman and her daughter Lisa have been forced to give up their personal assistants while they have no PPE to offer them.
Mrs Kelman, from Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, has been using the direct payment system for her 28-year-old daughter who has cerebral palsy. They usually have four people who come in and as well as personal care for Lisa, they are great company for her.
However, Mrs Kelman says they have not taken any risks with either Lisa or her carers' safety.
She said: "We have not had anyone in to help Lisa for nearly four weeks as we were told we needed equipment. I have tried and tried but got nowhere and to be honest no one has even told us what the right equipment is."
She added: "I have two carers who would still be willing to come in when we have PPE so we really need some answers."
Read more: Coronavirus: Postcards bring lifeline and cheer
Esther Muir, 61, took up the direct payment option five years ago when she needed help at home. Mrs Muir, from Tannochside, North Lanarkshire, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 23 years ago but when the time came to need the assistance of carers she went down the personal assistant route.
Mrs Muir said: “I didn’t like the idea of strangers coming I to my home so I learned about the SDS scheme and thought it would really suit me.
“I had never employed people before so I could not have done without the help of the charity when it came to setting things up with contracts.”
Read more: Coronavirus in Scotland: What you need to know about keeping mountain ready in lockdown
Mrs Muir has three personal assistants who come in and they have been taking steps to keep both her and them safe during this crisis.
She added: “I had gloves in the house and we had been wiping down door handles as a precautionary measure. I didn't want the personal assistants using public transport at this time so I have been making sure they take a taxi. Now we are being told they should be wearing masks and aprons so where am I supposed to get it from. I wrote to a Scottish Government email but there was no response. I just want to know where do we get the PPE and how.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government recognises the important role of everyone providing social care support, and the need to do this safely.
“We are working with NHS National Services for Scotland to deliver PPE to all social care providers, and are working out how we can extend this service to the wider unregulated social care sector - including personal assistants and unpaid carers.”
* Shops across Scotland are closing. Newspaper sales are falling. But we’ve chosen to keep our coverage of the coronavirus crisis free because it’s so important for the people of Scotland to stay informed during this difficult time.
However, producing The Herald's unrivalled analysis, insight and opinion on a daily basis still costs money, and we need your support to sustain our trusted, quality journalism.
To help us get through this, we’re asking readers to take a digital subscription to The Herald. You can sign up now for just £2 for two months.
If you choose to sign up, we’ll offer a faster loading, advert-light experience – and deliver a digital version of the print product to your device every day. Click here to help The Herald: https://www.heraldscotland.com/subscribe/ Thankyou, and stay safe.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here