Can you give advice on home care agencies/carers please?
- Thread starter Skylark2024
- Start date
We had the same problem with carers provided post hospital discharge. Mum couldn't understand many of them, and most didn't get her sense of humour. I found that they didn't really try to engage with her, simply gave instructions. They also filled in their time logs before doing any caring. They rarely stayed the allotted time.
That said, when I privately employed a carer, who was also not born in UK, we had no problems at all and Mum loved her. She was always on time, worked her full hours and stepped in to cover an evening for me at quite short notice. I viewed her as a friend.
One of the biggest drains on my energy is having to train each new agency carer that we get assigned. It would add considerable quality of care if you can have less experienced staff shadowing more experienced staff who can show them specific skills like turning in bed, bed bathing, advanced mobility needs. Also, make time for less experienced staff to shadow staff who are good at dealing with anxiety and challenging behaviours. Have yourself or another senior member of staff get to know each family, then train any new or cover carers you are going to place there, instead of the family having to do it. Finally, the right approach and attitude are everything. I recommend American dementia educator Teepa Snow’s materials, she has a lot of free videos on her website and YouTube.
Also, make sure that you and your staff don’t talk about the pwd in front of them, even if they appear to be nonverbal. People at the most advanced stages can still have moments of clariTy. Also, carers should be highly focused on the client and not chatting away to family members. Friendliness and some polite chat is fine, but I have has carers over sharing with me, a real drain on my energy as I was living full time with my parents. I wanted to be friendly and supportive to care assistants but they sometimes mistakenly assumed I was available to chat at length. On the other hand, my dad who doesn’t have dementia would want to chat with care assistants and I had to insist that they be boundaried with him, to enable them to focus on my mom, and to create a calm, peaceful environment for her.
I think its impossible for carers to know how to deal with so many different people. Although the care plan should always be referred to beforehand, I can believe it maybe sometimes overlooked.
My experience so far with carers.
The care company I use phoned me to ask if I agreed to let their two carers have a junior "shadow" carer every so often. I have no objection and every so often the two turn up with a third.
If they don't talk gently to my OH to say in advance what they're about to do I tell them off and explain. This is fairly rare, I'm happy to report. None of those carers has objected to me about this.
However, the company phoned me about 7 months ago to say someone had lodged a complaint against them with the CQC, as a result of which they would arrange for one of their managers to visit me by prior appointment to go through the care plan and check whatever is in there is followed or not. They said they were arranging this for every 3 months or so with all their clients. They have so far stuck to that.
I have checked the "log" they write, as a result of which I keep my own record of when they come and when they go - as they are never as long with my OH as they record!
Some ask if it OK to change my OH's clothes or not, as they don't always know when the other carers changed clothes. They point out to me if they have concerns, and it was the carers who pointed ut to me when my OH had a rash, about which I spoke with GP, and turned out to be shingles.
Not perfect (but what is?) but generally pretty good.
The care company I use phoned me to ask if I agreed to let their two carers have a junior "shadow" carer every so often. I have no objection and every so often the two turn up with a third.
If they don't talk gently to my OH to say in advance what they're about to do I tell them off and explain. This is fairly rare, I'm happy to report. None of those carers has objected to me about this.
However, the company phoned me about 7 months ago to say someone had lodged a complaint against them with the CQC, as a result of which they would arrange for one of their managers to visit me by prior appointment to go through the care plan and check whatever is in there is followed or not. They said they were arranging this for every 3 months or so with all their clients. They have so far stuck to that.
I have checked the "log" they write, as a result of which I keep my own record of when they come and when they go - as they are never as long with my OH as they record!
Some ask if it OK to change my OH's clothes or not, as they don't always know when the other carers changed clothes. They point out to me if they have concerns, and it was the carers who pointed ut to me when my OH had a rash, about which I spoke with GP, and turned out to be shingles.
Not perfect (but what is?) but generally pretty good.
