Sorry for the long post, but I found this on a regional FB page and thought, Oh, I do 90% of that and I am totally UNPAID! I appreciate the work any paid carer does and they deserve at the very least a minimum wage for their caring work, but there are literally thousands of family members who are left to care for their relatives and if they qualify might get the measly sixty seven quid a week the Govt say is enough!!! I think we should be paid minimum wage too!
FOR ALL CARE WORKERS OUT THERE
As far as I’m concerned the poor care workers have been ignored and forgotten about during this pandemic! They do just as much as NHS workers and its time it was recognised the trauma these workers have experienced on a daily basis looking after the elderly and vulnerable is horrific while putting themselves and their families at huge risk everyday.
This is something very close to my heart and it is about time these people were given the money and recognition they truly deserve
So SUPPORT WORKERS OR CARE ASSISTANT/WORKERS don’t deserve more than minimum wage
Apparently it’s because they “only sit around and make cups of tea for people” and it’s an unskilled job?!?!?
UNSKILLED JOB !!!
I can give you a list off the top of my head to show what care workers actually have to do, and I can bet it’s not even half of it.
- Washes
- Showers/baths
- Dressing
- Shaving
- Apply creams
- Brushing hair/teeth
- Changing incontinence pads
> Emotional support when they’re sad
- Giving them company, sometimes we’re the only people they see all day
- Giving medication, even the likes of controlled drugs
- Hoists, stand aids, getting the person from A to B
- Reassure them when they’re frightened, calming them down when they’re irritated
- Cleaning their homes
- Take them out to socialise
- Shopping calls
- Chase up medication
- Call GP’s when new medication/cream may be needed
- Arrange appointments
- Make their meals and drinks
- Catheter care
- Stoma care
- Answer all their emergency response calls
- Handle their finances, in some cases
- Remain calm and professional when they’re hurling verbal and sometimes physical abuse at you
- Apologise when they insult the care staff, even though it’s not our fault
- Take them to the hospital when needed
- Toilet calls
- Feeding them
- Turning them onto each side if bed ridden, to avoid sores
- Battling with 111 and Doctors when you know they need to be checked over
- Dementia care
- Alzheimers care
- Parkinsons care
- Many various illnesses and disease care
- End of life care
- Supporting families, reassuring them and keeping them informed of everything happening with their relative
- Dealing with family complaints and apologising even though the situation was often 99% out of your control
- Pushing people in wheelchairs, along with all their shopping bags when they’re out
- Acting fast when someone shows symptoms of a stroke, heart attack, fits, various other conditions
- Keeping people calm when they have fell, assuring them that help is on the way and they need to lay still as possible
- Recognising when the person you visit numerous times a week is acting out of sorts. Acting upon it and seeking advice because you KNOW that’s not their usual self.
- Having the patient of a saint. We’re busy, but we don’t and can’t rush. We go at their pace. Always
- Washing and drying, folding and ironing, putting away clothes
- Making sure they’re wearing their emergency help button, so that you’re confident they can press it should they need help once you’re gone. It’s not always easy. People can refuse, or throw it away.
- When a person won’t take medication they critically need, you have no solution, but you need to BE that solution. Figure out ways you can get them to converse with you and listen, so they will take the tablets that will keep their health stable.
- We’re sometimes verbally and physically abused. We get called all the names under the sun, sometimes we get punched, slapped, kicked and bit, they pull our hair or lash out. It’s not always their fault, illnesses can cause this behaviour. We just have to remove ourselves from the environment and report.
- We can go hours with no break
- Sometimes we have to hold our bladder for 2+ hours because we literally don’t have time for the toilet
- Our calls list is full, but someone calls for help, we need to find ways we can get to them as well as doing everything else we need to do
- We don’t complain. Our job is hard. Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we’re reduced to tears.
- arriving to find the person has passed away and arrange 999 response and stay with the deceased until they have been taken away by emergency services or family have arrived after you have had to inform them
ALL THIS We do it all for minimum wage
we DEFINITELY know we deserve so much more, but we still do it anyway.