I'll Die After Bingo: My unlikely life as a care home assistant

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So, I preferred some aspects of this book to others, but it is undeniably an important addition to the existing literature on social care. This book is brilliant - an amazing mix of dedication, empathy, laughs-out-loud and outrage about how the current government has abandoned the care system for elderly people to hedge funders and others who just want to make money out of the vulnerable. Not an easy read, but if you want to know what care homes for the demented are like, and why, it's essential reading.

A truly refreshing perspective of work and life in the care industry with an unapologetic sense of humour in its tapestry that only Pope could deliver both sensitively and with the full force of a frying pan. He hopes that experience will leave us “better equipped to deal with illness and ageing, and able to see dementia as more than just an obliteration-in-slow motion”. Hats off also to him for his dedication in working this broken system, and I'm sure than many of the residents were that much the better because of him. Once again care homes have entered my life as my in laws are now bouncing between hospital and care homes. Why is it that we come to value to the care of those closest to us so little that it is farmed out to profit centres employing people on the lowest possible wages, who are forever leaving for easier ways to earn a crust?People generally don't like to think about themselves or their loved ones needing this kind of care, and it's almost one of the last taboos. It can only add to the picture you have of what it's like to work in the health and care sector in this country. The book would have been improved by some editing to make the transitions smoother or to weave the commentary into real-life examples; reminiscences of Lonergan’s own.

This book does for care home workers what This Is Going to Hurt did for junior doctors… this isn’t just a conscience-rebooting book. The author is obviously highly intelligent, proactive and caring, whilst not shying away from his own weaknesses. Pope Lonergan is a stand up comedian from Essex, a recovering drug addict, and was for over a decade a care assistant in a variety of Care Homes. It does for care workers what doctor-turned-comedian Adam Kay’s 2017 memoir This is Going to Hurt did for medics. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.

In this book are stories of old people rid of their inhibitions by dementia, of profit focused organisations under-paying their poorly trained staff who despite all (mostly) still try and give a good standard of care, and much on the practical realities of aging - bodies that don't work as well, and support needs that rid people of their dignity. Lonergan also has a special empathy for his clients as he has lived on the sidelines of society himself as a now-recovering drug addict.

I'll Die After Bingo: The Unlikely Story of My Decade as a Care Home Assistant by Pope Lonergan - read 16. Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you. He also admits it scratched his itch for rebellion against the dehumanising rules imposed by managers focused on the “business-over-welfare model of profit extraction”, expecting better treatment for self-funding residents than those receiving government support.

Only occasionally funny, and most of the humour was in the footnotes, (and I'm not a fan of footnotes). Also a stand up comic, there's a surprisingly light touch to Pope's writing considering the challenging nature of his subject matter. No wonder he admits to the occasional impulse to push a resident out of the window and needs to take himself off to calm down in the staff bathroom.

Hats off to the author Pope Lonergan for his incisive and witty commentaries about a broken system of aged care, with the carers being the lowest form of life. Hannah Weatherill, Acting Head of Media Rights, Penguin Random House, said: “Pope’s memoir about his work as a carer is extraordinary – he captures the personalities of the residents, their families, and his colleagues in all their complexity with incredible empathy and humour. And care home residents (I too hate the world clients) shouldn't need to have to be 'humanized' but Pope does bring out the people so lovingly, whilst still sharing what it's like when the people he's getting to know may be disinhibited, emotional, or disconnected in ways their families don't recognize, for worse and sometimes for better. In the creative industries (ergh) cultivating relationships is really important – and luckily Expectation is full of the nicest, most insightful and talented ‘TV people’ you’ll ever find. She had slight dementia but right to the end she could have a conversation with us unless she had one of the dreaded infections.I’m very grateful they’ve taken a punt on me (a recovering Crack ‘ead Quaker) and my book (a book that includes a line about swallowing boobs). He did actually portray himself as the best carer in the home with the best methods and the most caring nature this did grate a little as I am sure he had more than a few moments of being human and losing the plot.