Hi, we have some limited help with our mother who is disabled and has MND (not formally diagnosed) mornings for 45 minutes during the week. Two of the carers are great and although Mum cannot speak they have a rapport with her. Recently a new carer has visited, the room is silent and she seems to not even try to communicate with Mum. We now have reservations about her being uncaring with Mum but have no evidence as we do not have any cameras, Mum says she is ok, but as Mum is the sort of person to never complain I cannot Trust this. Does anyone have any experience of dealing with this sort of issue?
Maybe give her the benefit of the doubt and talk to the care agency, about her working alongside one of the others to see what they do? In all honesty I wouldn’t know what to do in those circumstances, unless someone told me.
Having seen well over 35 different carers from four different agencies visit my 95 year-old mother over the course of 15 months, doubled up 4x daily, there is great variation in the degree of interaction and conversation between carers and caree, and over time. The same goes for the carers’ interactions with me.
I lived with mum and while I tried to keep out of their way (mum’s bed was downstairs in the living room), I kept a keen eye and ear on things often from the kitchen. I did use a camera, on full display in the living room, to keep an eye from upstairs, and Ring video/motion detector door bells to record/alert entry and exit times. Those came in handy, especially to compare actual times of visits with those recorded in the careplan for my safeguarding case!
I could not link ‘bad’ caring practices to the outward ‘friendliness’ of the various carers. Same goes for the healthcare associates and multitude of nurses mum and I encountered in hospital.
When I did witness poor care and patterns of unacceptable documentation, I did comment and if need be complain, but I was specific and could substantiate each complaint.