'Cruel' council splits up elderly couple
Thousands of people have signed a petition calling for an elderly South Tyneside couple to be reunited - after South Tyneside Council stopped them from moving into the same care home.
Jessie and Ray Lorrison have been together for 70 years. However, following a fall nine weeks ago, Mrs Lorrison, 88, has been in hospital - and has been told she won't be able to join Mr Lorrison, 95, when she leaves.
Ray, a Merchant Navy cook, and shop manager Jessie married in 1950 and went on to have three children - living for more than 60 years living in Marsden, South Shields.
Mr Lorrison, who suffers from Alzheimer's, moved into Westoe Grange Care Home after his wife's accident and subsequent diagnosis with sepsis. The couple and their family were hoping that when Mrs Lorrison was discharged from hospital she would be able to join him there.
However, while there is a place for Mrs Lorrison, social services have decided that she is fit to return home with the help of a carer visiting for 15 minutes four times a day.
"My grandfather sits and waits for her everyday - confused, anxious and lonely without the woman who has been by his side for 70 years," says grandson Lee Bates, 41.
"My grandmother misses her husband terribly and still wants to do what she can to care for him - even if it's just sitting by his side holding his hand. This treatment is inhumane and cruel."
An online petition created by Mr Bates has now attracted nearly 20,000 signatures.
However, a South Tyneside Council spokesperson has defended the decision, saying the council prefers people to stay in their own home when possible.
"A decision to admit any individual to residential care is a major one and often means they are unlikely to return to their own home," the spokesperson tells the Northern Echo.
"If a couple require the same type of care we will always try and ensure they remain together, but we would not automatically take away an individual's independence to achieve that."
Until a few years ago, it was far more common for elderly couples to be separated when one needed to go into a care home. Back in 2006, there was a high-profile case when Richard and Beryl Driscoll, both 89, spent seven months apart after Mr Driscoll was ruled eligible for a care home place but his wife was not.
However, after much campaigning on the grounds that the separation breached the couple's right to a family life under human rights law, they were eventually reunited.
