Swine flu strikes...

I have not written anything for a while and that's a shame I have quite a lot to share.

At least some of that has, this last few days, been down to the arrival in my body of the dreaded swine flu. Normally, Flu I treat like an outbreak of Ebola and take to my bed claiming that death is about to take me.

But being objective, for those who might be fearful, it's nothing much to get excited about. yes the throat has been sore, the temperature has been high and the joints have ached.

But compared to the one last winter, this has been nothing.

Of course this has been helped by the fostering service and their interventions.

There I was in bed not very well and the phone called me.

So far so good.

It was my fostering worker and there were very important things to ask:

Ahh must be the details of young P returning to his mum after 7 years, errr no.

No, she needed to know about our preparations for swine flu.

Right.

what would happen if we both got swine flu and were unable to work?

Last winter we had both been very unwell and I had no recollection of anyone from fostering phoning and making sure we could cope.

Ah yes that was then and they did not have a form to fill in then, not quite the exact words but it became clear that was the issue.

As it happened I was in bed as she spoke and I thought I had the flu. Did she want to know if I needed help now.

shuffle shuffle she could not see a box for that on her form. Pause.

If I should get the flu, she repeated did I have someone who could go to the shops for me.

The concern, I said, was that if the flu became serious, large sectors of the population might not be in work and there might be shortages. Yes I did have a plan to increase our holdings of food and fuel in case this might occur.

Yes but would someone go to the shops for me if I was ill.

Tranport might be adversly affected but as it happens in a rural environment we would be better off than most.

Yes but could someone go to the shops for me if I was ill.

I was ill now.

Shuffle shuffle, no box for that.

If I became ill......

Anyway, more to the point, would the agency be happy for me to stockpile a weeks supply of paracetamol for each person in the house, that's a lot of paracetamol!

Shuffle shuffle.

If I became ill was there someone to go shoping for me.

Ohhhh for goodness sakes, if it keeps you quiet put yes, the relief was palpable.

Could we offer extra beds if they were needed?

Did they plan to use them then?

shuffle shuffle.....

I think it's an illustration of what needs to improve in social work today.

The form was all, it needed filling, good social work is making sure the box has a great big tick in it.

R