Ed Balls admits feeling ‘guilty’ for putting mum, 83, in home amid 15-year dementia battle

Ed Balls criticises Biden for warmongering attitude

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Former Secretary of State for Families Ed Balls, 54, has opened up about the guilt he feels for putting his mum Carolyn, who suffers with dementia, in a care home that can cope with her needs. The admission comes ahead of his new two-part BBC2 documentary that explores the crisis in the care sector.

You feel guilty that you’ve done it and guilty that you waited so long

Ed Balls

Inside the Care Crisis with Ed Balls will begin next Monday, is based at a care home in Scarborough.

And it was an experience he described as “searing”.

Having gone through all the proper training, he and the team spent two weeks filming to highlight the on-going issues within adult social care.

But only when they delved deeper into the problems at hand, did Ed realise just how big the problem is.

In a new interview, he also reflected on his own family’s situation and how it felt to have to put his mum in a home.

“I was the Secretary of State for Families, and personally I’ve been dealing with my mum’s dementia for 15 years,” he said.

“But it’s only now, having done this programme, that I comprehend the size of the problem, how as a society we’ve never understood, and never valued, what care actually is.”

The moving documentary series also stars Carolyn – who is living at a care home in Norwich – but Ed admitted he was initially reluctant to include her.

“I was worried about allowing the cameras to come with me to visit mum, as she might have had absolutely no idea who I was,” he sighed.

“When I go, I look for moments of recognition and a smile, but the reality is that in general that doesn’t happen.”

And with Covid running rife through care homes all over the country during the height of the pandemic, he was shaken with worry, revealing many people on her dementia wing tragically lost their lives.

“The nature of dementia as a disease is that there’s a progressive grieving for what is lost over the years,” he told Radio Times.

“It’s not something that you deal with on a particular day, it just happens over and over.

“Every time, I mourn for what’s lost.”

Despite Carolyn’s circumstances, the ex-government minister revealed his mum is “happy and healthier” since moving into the home.

But it doesn’t stop him feeling guilty for having to put her there.

“You feel guilty that you’ve done it and guilty that you waited so long, because it’s obviously the best thing for them,” he explained.

Ed also admitted he made a mistake by not doing more for social care while he was in office.

“I was the Treasury’s lead on social care in the mid-2000s, and I’m really proud that we raised taxes to fund the NHS – and really angry with myself that we didn’t do the same thing for social care,” he shook his head, revealing it’s very easy for politicians to “get a sanitised view of what it’s all about”.

Ed’s full interview is available to read now in Radio Times.

Inside the Care Crisis with Ed Balls airs Monday at 9pm on BBC Two.

Source: Read Full Article