MY mother, Catherine Forster, is 96-years-old. She is not stable on her legs, is mostly deaf, and suffers from dementia.

She lives alone in a council bungalow in Shotton Colliery, County Durham.

She is a prisoner in her own home.

My brother and I are 69 and 74- years-old. We take dinner and tea over to her every day and are responsible for ensuring she takes her pills correctly. The carers come in three times a day as well.

She goes to bed whenever she feels the need, middle of the day or night, and is very forgetful.

For these reasons, we would like to put her into a home.

We obtained a letter from her doctor confirming she should go into a home for her own safety and we set up a meeting with social services.

However, they advised that all they could offer was putting a sensor on the rear door to monitor how long it had been left open, this would be linked to the warden and, if the door had been open for a long time, they would come out.This would take half an hour which I believe is too long.

It would appear to me that social services are only out to save money and not to take care of the old people in our community.

We would be ever so grateful if you could raise awareness of this situation. Perhaps other readers have had similar issues?

Allen Forster, Shotton Colliery.