Professionalism - or not

In the mess of my son's care package review, one particularly irritating shambles was a very poorly written assessment by someone who had barely seen him, but as a professional, had the status to make judgements on the basis of little or no first hand information. We complained about the assessment and sent in our own comments, particularly on some critical omissions and one near slanderous statement. (Probably actionable, had we the energy.)

We've just had a rather grudging apology from the boss, but in the same post, a 'signing off' of his 'case' by the original offender which in turn seems more concerned to label us as unhelpful than to consider our sons actual disabilities.

This really irritates me.

We cared for him pretty much alone for the first 18 years and it's taken us the last 10 to get a care package together that might outlast us. I feel this should give us some status as experts in his care. I certainly feel we know him better than someone parachuted in who only met him (and then under pressure - they would have been happy to have done the assessment from paperwork and second hand comments alone if we hadn't insisted on a visit.) for half an hour.

But this person is a 'professional' and has official status. As carers we don't.

It's bad being ignored. It's worse being actively discounted. It's abysmal when the paperwork is more important than the care.