Husband came home from hospital on Mon and carers were sent in by local authority. First few were great, polite, attentive, gentle, understanding and unhurried.
What surprised us is they are not allowed to take their shoes off or wear shoe covers. One woman has been in 3 times now looking like she is about to climb Everest. Huge great walking boots all through the hall and lounge. She barely speaks to us as she’s in a hurry to log in. So a 45 minute morning call lasts about 25 and tonight her 30 minute call took 8 minutes! She crashes and bangs about, hitting the door frames and cupboard doors. Husband is fuming and says we will have no house left! He politely told her to slow down and take care.
As she was filling in her notes on her phone I went to move a wheelchair and caught the door frame. She said “you see it’s not so easy”. I said “well you’re the professional not me so you should be able to do it”. She said “it doesn’t take a professional to push a wheelchair.” I politely told her not to visit us again and also told their office.
It concerns me that some of them spend more time typing in their notes on the phone than they do helping my husband and giving me half an hour to myself.
There’s a real shortage of good workers, and some of the ones my son has had have been absolutely terrible over the years. Currently about half of his team of regulars are good or better. The others are a work in progress…our only advantage is that Mike has more hours of care, so it’s in their interests to get it right - or Mike gets very loud…
It’s much harder in your position, but you’re right to take a stand. These days, though, everything is done on their phone - logging as having arrived, what they’ve reported to have done, logging as leaving…you might want to keep notes of what you know happened. In case someone complains about you (it’s an old tactic, but very effective at silencing complaints).
@Penny That was precisely why we stopped Graham’s carers on the first day when he was discharged from hospital. The woman arrived to get him out of bed and washed at …12.15pm ! She then moaned how long it took her to drive here and we are “too far away” - duh! She made no attempt to find out anything about Graham and refused to wash him saying “we’re here to facilitate and enable - not to do things for him”. Kept telling him “do this now - come on, pick up that cloth” and barked orders so he was totally confused. Next put his continence pad on so badly I had to wash him again 15 minutes after she left. Graham was traumatised by it all and begged me not to let her or anyone else back. I was then criticised by her Manager who said “well it might be better tomorrow” to which I replied ‘and it might be worse if this is your STANDARD of care!’
Thank God we don’t HAVE to rely on them at the moment…
A neighbour who is disabled had to have carers in for her husband - they refused to wash him with soap and water and would only use wet wipes. They have no downstairs loo and he had to use a commode and they would only empty it once a day! Also left used pads and other wipes etc on the floor instead of putting them in the bin and even refused to put bags of rubbish in the outside bin which was next to the door they used to leave the house… THAT was called “care”… She was so scared to complain in case they withdrew the support!
We had the woman from County Hall out during the week. She was here 1.5 hrs and 1.25 hrs were taken up filling in forms. Questions like what my husband did in the past, what his hobbies were etc. she said this was so carers had a good understanding of what he enjoyed before his stroke. what a joke, nobody makes time to chat to him.
Seems a pointless exercise to me. Fair enough if we were seeing the benefit but we’re not. I bet it just gets shoved in a drawer.
I can’t see that any of the carers have any interest in my husband or me come to that. They just want to be in and out.
I realise they can’t give a definite time to arrive but whatever I plan they are either too early or too late. We have a cup of tea as soon as we wake up. Do the loo trip. If it’s still early we have another cuppa and some toast. They come in just as we are biting the toast. They make it clear they need to get on and keep watching the clock. If i postpone breakfast they don’t come in until about 10 and we are starving. So we get breakfast about 10.45.
I would really appreciate some good support just to start and end our day but this seems more trouble than it’s worth.
Been there - not so much with time spent by carers (although it is very much a rush job a lot of the time), but definitely in terms of disrespect of someone else’s home. Carers’ own personal rubbbish thrown on floor, blocked toilet, door handles broken, carers talking loudly on their phones whilst Dad watching TV. It seems that nowadays everything is about logging activity to cover yourself should anything go wrong. I understand why that needs to be done, but then leaves little time for actual decent quality caring.
Hi Penny, it took me a week or so to get used to having people in the house and taking care of Mum’s personal care, which I had always done.
While Mum’s carers are wonderful, I had the same complaint about not knowing arrival times, making it impossible to arrange our meals so they weren’t interrupted. I spoke with the care company about this and they have shared the (btw, carer/client) app they use so I can see the scheduled visits for the whole week/month etc and contribute my own notes, if necessary.
We have a 30 minute leeway - so if they are due at 9am, the arrival time could be between 8:45-9:15 - and anything outside that range they need to call me, whether they want to come early or if they are going to be late.
Mum has two carers so one can write the notes/complete the body map while the other is attending to her, but it is time-consuming for them (I personally think their notes are far more long-winded than necessary).
I’m glad you were able to tell the care company that there was a specific person you didn’t want to attend. I’ve had to do the same once, in almost two years and it wasn’t pleasant. You must be comfortable in your own home, but may I advise you to forgo worrying about carpets, as it is important for the best care that your husband’s carers are comfortable too. Carpets can be cleaned.
I hope things improve, meanwhile ask for the app the care company use so you know when to expect the visits. It will make life so much easier.