So as some of you may know I’ve had ongoing issues with my mum and her carers, to the point they were utterly negligent most of the time. It was so so stressful, like you’d have to do their job again because they couldn’t be bothered in the first place. Management and staff alike we’re all useless and I even got arrested as an Indian pulled the race card and said I racially abused them (which I most certainly did not) and it got me locked in a cell for 18hr only to be released as “no evidence at all”.
Now my mum had a couple seizures a few months ago due to sepsis in the catheter site, again if you know this has been an ongoing issue. This was where I complained to the useless cqc, they put a safeguarding complaint in urgently and this appears to have tipped the councils hand and forced them to find a new agency.
The new agency are amazing, the management are nice as are the staff. They do the full time (sometimes more), and they speak to my mum and give her some company (something the others didn’t know how to do). They even do more than they really should and I’ve often come home to see the pots washed and stuff, something the other agency has never done. But honestly it’s just another huge stress off my shoulders, like I know my mums being looked after extremely well. Even one of my mums friends came and said we all look so much happier now that they’ve gone. I’m just so glad they’ve gone, just the issue is whom will they abuse next? These companies should be closed without second thought, and the cqc investors should literally go in under cover, apply for a job and see if the training and quality is there or not.
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So happy to hear that. Maybe tell your entire story to a newspaper in order to raise awareness.
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I wouldn’t know where to begin with that to be honest and it’s over with now. I do feel sorry for those stuck with them and no family though.
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Wow I am so pleased to read this amazing news.
You have been through so much and your mum,
So good she had you, yes you are right to have concerns for others but you did complain and you cannot fix everything.
Try to rest and find time for you
I am saddened to think of you imprisoned
I hope you not traumatised
Warmly
Ula
Come and join roll call if you feel inclined,
Lots of good folk,
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I’m so pleased for you, but it shouldn’t be a lottery like this.
But enjoy life with your new agency - it makes so much of a difference to have a good one.
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Thanks for posting, Jamie. We hear so much gloom and doom on this forum that it great to read of something positive for a change. It does show that persistence does sometime pay off. In your case, maybe the CQC was not so useless; it triggered the process towards finding you a good caring service. It would be good to hear from others when things turn out for the better. We can arguably learn more from good experiences than from bad ones.
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I complained to the CQC about my mums care company and told them I had concerns about safeguarding but didn’t get any response so went on to my MP and she had the local authority find another company very quickly. I think you do need to speak up and make a noise if necessary. The local authority told me there were no other care companies in this area but they soon found one when I got the MP involved.
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Heya.
Hear hear. You are always in my prayers. Having said that this is why you need to do your research alone and make some brief summary notes as well. I was willing to consider local care homes as a alternative option if I failed to find a suitable care company. Good luck to you. Visit at least two or three care homes to discuss things and see around the entire place in question. Take a bunch of decent photos.
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@Milev1 Well done - a good MP is very much worthwhile in situations like this.
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Good luck. I had to fight with my care company two or three years ago. I said that a certain member of their staff (she knows who she is and what she did!!) should never have been hired at all. I said that it was old fashioned and downright inappropriate.
Yeah I know, all of them should have to be monitored (properly, no notice given) and be forced to close should they mess up. It’s sick how the cqc won’t use their enforcement powers, even in cases where there’s a long history of safeguarding complaints. Totally unfit for purpose and needs more powers to get rid of the crap companies once and for all.
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See they said the same about my mum, her old social worker who forced us to stay said they’re the only company. What a load a bs that was. As soon as she left the other social workers started taking our concerns seriously until the one we got before the one now got the ball moving on getting her a new company and I think the safeguarding complaints from the hospital and cqc pushed it to a point where the only option was the had to change. She got a place in 4 weeks despite being told it would take a while (months to a year or more) but it soon happened. Weird how that happens isn’t it?
Yes, we had little option stuffed with the old one potentially gain something way better, I mean it’s not like they could be any worse. In our situation it was a gamble we were willing to take after the last 5 years of horrible care. Now she’s being well looked after. Given fresh drinks every call, they was up (even not the stuff they’ve used) and have a chat with mum and provide her with some company if I have a busy day, which is now a possibility, I know she’ll have been looked after, fed, cleaned, they tidying the house up a bit as well. Overall they’re very good and now it’s like we actually have support rather than a burden and it’s now allowing me to focus on me a while.
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Unfortunately there are lots of uncaring people in some of these companies, in the last company they rehired someone who got fired once for being completely lacking empathy or the compassion to work with disabled children, like how could you be like that? Second job is was something similar with adults with learning difficulties and was sacked for the exact same reason. She’s the cow who’d intentionally nor heat up my mums meals (she fed her still frozen food), they stopped her coming to feed her but if she’s doing that to mum how many more does she do it to who have no one to look out for them? Why would you take her back after being sacked twice and you know she intentionally tries to poison people? The also sacked another one because they left people on their chairs all night after deciding to just go home and not tell anyone, they even fool her back. It’s insane.
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Thank you but I still think about all those people who don’t have family advocating for them. I’m mum’s main carer and she needs 24 x 7 care so when I do get sits I want to make sure the people I leave her with are competent.
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Wow sounds like the same company I complained about but what’s more worrying is that there could be lots of similar stories around. The company I complained about hired someone who had been sacked by her previous company and the previous company warned them not to take her on. She let someone fall and left them on the floor so “she wasn’t late for her next call”, gave someone wrong meds, left someone soaked and in mums case while she was on a 2 hour sit she fell asleep on the sofa and ignored mums shouts that she needed the commode. Other carers were not much better. There are so many vulnerable people who have no family speaking out for them it’s frightening to think what’s happening.
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Sorry I’m a little late to your conversation.
I am a journalist only for a little seaside paper though but I may be able to give you some advice if you wish to go to a paper.
I don’t know what papers you have near you but if you have any little local newspapers write to the news/editorial team. My paper has a letters page which people can write to based on views. I wonder if other papers have the same pages. Usually this is a free for all page (within reason) and it doesn’t always have to be a news story in itself.
We get a lot of letters about flower displays and the latest backlash to the councils plans or god forbid there’s another housing development in the area.
Wow. Some people are really bad and wicked.