Care doesn't cure

We've had some positive news from the medics and physios over the last couple of days: Viv has recovered well from her latest op and things look bright.

Our physio explained why this might be: Viv has been off her legs since February 2017 but she has been doing regular rehab exercises almost daily. The latest op has, for want of a better way of putting it, fixed a few things in her brain; her brain is once again able to tell her legs what to do, and her legs are able to respond.

The rehab regime Viv has followed has been possible because she has been at home, in my care. If she had been in a care home that wouldn't have been the case; the physio said she would probably have been left, to be bed bound, for the rest of her days.

There is this view that patients leave hospital to go into care - that is actually what was proposed for Viv three weeks ago until I got my Power of Attorney out. Care doesn't cure, though; a home environment, with the right support, is a far better place for someone to get well.

For many patients it may be that the home environment is not suitable for their rehab; but shouldn't efforts be made to change that, and to get people thinking about their likely needs in older age, to keep them out of care?

Also, shouldn't social services be a little less risk averse, and let people live at home if it is at all possible, rather than placing them in care homes where they are just kept in bed all day 'for their own good, for they might fall'?