re Alan's sitter

Tender Face

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Mar 14, 2006
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NW England
OK - and Hiya Huffy Helen ;):D - we're all entitled to get huffy!!!!

We know many (not all) carers work as carers because it 'fits in' - it's not exactly a professional money spinning job (we all know that's crass! - unless we are talking medically qualified in which case they wouldn't work as a carer) - for some if we're lucky - it might be a vocation ... they might be committed and passionate and dedicated ... wonderful people - but all come from families - families with school-age or younger children or perhaps grandchildren .... with peers and friends and elder generations they have mixed with elsewhere who might be at any stage of an infection without them realising ... the fact is they all come - whether they work in a communal setting or act as 'sitters' in a private home - with GERMS.

It's how we manage that and balance and accept those risks ..... whether in the home setting or a 'communal environment' ......

Much love, Karen, x



PS: I'm sorry others see fit to jump on a bandwagon and shout 'Oh, but it's different when ....' We all are or have been in parallel universes ...... and mostly try to help without patronising. I am sorry if I came across that way, Helen. :(

PPS: I know Helen is more than capable of speaking up for herself, Skye.:mad:
 

Helen33

Registered User
Jul 20, 2008
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Dear Karen

You have just made me laugh Karen because I am sitting at the keyboard saying "of course they come with germs. I am not daft. I have clients come every day with germs. I have germs. The shops have germs. Money has germs."

HOWEVER, the Agency, I was told, specifically cover this issue in their training and they have a strict policy about this. We cannot help having contact with germs, my point is
no one should knowingly put a vulnerable adult at risk - meaning when one is experiencing the onset or is in the beginning stages of a contagious virus or disease

I have obtained the correct information from the Agency that I use and that policy will be in place in my home from now on.

I have actually found this quite therapeutic because it has got the "huffy" out of my system and I now feel better. I only hope I can sleep.

Love and best wishes

p.s. I did not feel that you came across as patronising Karen and I've only just seen your p.s.'s
 
Last edited:

Skye

Registered User
Aug 29, 2006
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SW Scotland
PS: I'm sorry others see fit to jump on a bandwagon and shout 'Oh, but it's different when ....' We all are or have been in parallel universes ...... and mostly try to help without patronising.

I am not jumping on any bandwagon, Karen.

Of all the people who post regularly on TP, Helen's situation with Alan most closely mirrors mine with John, though of course no two cases are identical. I was merely giving Helen the benefit of my own experience, and was certainly not patronising her. I thought that sharing experiences was what TP was about.


PPS: I know Helen is more than capable of speaking up for herself, Skye.:mad:


Why does that make you mad, Karen?
 

JPG1

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Jul 16, 2008
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Helen,

I think you’re right to ask the Agency to supply you with info about their policy and training on this. Skye mentions the “deficiencies in the care industry” and the fact that “the system needs to change”. Correct! And there are many of us busting a gut, day in day out, trying to make those changes happen, and trying to correct those deficiencies in the care industry. With success in some areas, less success in others; but it’s only when we all do as you have done, and ask for details of the policy, procedures, training etc, (whether to do with colds and flu, or with other major issues) that we will ever know about their existence.

And, let’s face it, there are major areas of concern that we all have which are covered by “policy and staff training and procedures” - perhaps in existence on paper, but ignored in reality. That’s what I’m working to change.

I think Karen’s right, when she said that we have to balance the risks against the need for care. Germs and infections and viruses aren’t always at their most dangerous once the ‘visible’ signs are there. Going to the toilet, then not washing hands = one of the most dangerous issues of all: you leave the loo by placing your hands on the door knob! (Apologies for choice of word there.) Next person in does likewise. I’d like to see a lock-that-will-not-open-unless-and-until-you-have-washed-your-hands on all public (private?) toilets!! With a wash-hand basin in the cubicle! Oh, if only! And you can never be sure where your” sitter has sat” on any given day, or the surroundings s/he may have been in.

Supermarkets and shops full of people sneezing and coughing at the moment, as they fondle the tomatoes and grapes and so on. Even those who aren’t coughing and sneezing may have a lurgy whilst fondling toms and grapes too.

But what troubles me is that there is a flu jab available every year – and I am of the firm belief that Agency staff (and other medics and care home staff and relatives and support workers etc etc), in fact all of those who come into close contact with ‘vulnerable people’ (young or old; dementia patients or not) should be required to have that flu jab, as part of their contract of employment. It won’t protect against all strains, but it does protect against some and the most likely ones. I’ve had a flu jab for years now – to protect not me, but for me to be able to protect. Flu jabs are frequently given to dementia patients too, but I’m not saying they’re suitable for every one.

Poorly paid agency workers are the same as any other worker. How many of us have been at work with colleagues who really should have known better – and stayed at home. The ‘should have known better’ syndrome covers many aspects of care, and can sometimes be responsible for equally disastrous, or even more disastrous results than colds and flu.

Helen, I agree with you wholeheartedly: someone who has a heavy cold or flu-like symptoms should not put at risk the vulnerable person in their care. Of course you are sensitive to this because of Alan’s previous experience, and so you should be. My wish for the world is that all those of us with sensitivities about whatever aspect of care should have those sensitivities addressed and respected. So, huff on, Helen, huff on!!

Hope you had a good night’s sleep!

.
 

Helen33

Registered User
Jul 20, 2008
14,697
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Dear JPG1

:DThank you for your message and support. I seem to have accidentally gained an interest in this issue now that it has arisen. More of a general interest than a personal one but of course it has been born out of personal experience.

I asked our other sitter tonight what his understanding was of what should happen if he was coming down with or had a cold or virus of some kind. He was clear that he shouldn't come to work because of putting elderly, frail people at risk. He did not particularly see Alan as been elderly and frail because he is physically very fit and doesn't appear particularly frail. His training did not cover the link between infection and dementia and the possible consequences. I have decided to bring this matter up at the carers support group (if I get a chance) to see whether someone can get the Agency to improve their training. I am not a campaigner any longer. I don't want to campaign. To me this just seems a simple matter of updating information and passing it onto trainees but I have a feeling that it won't end up being as simple as it is in my head. But I live in hope.

I admire you for being a campaigner. Just one thing though about the toilets - please don't lock me in automatically. I don't trust these gadgets and have fantasies about ending up locked in the loo. There is one of those metal public loos in our local town, one of those automatic flush things, and it is well known for misbehaving. I used it once in an emergency and had visions of the door automatically opening displaying my ungainly posture to a crowd of passing shoppers:D

Love
 

JPG1

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Jul 16, 2008
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Helen,

I don't see myself as a campaigner. Far from it. I see myself as a worker, a grafter, as a person trying to improve things all round in the world of dementia. And I will do all that I can do, all that I find the energy to do, all that I find the anger-within-me able to accomplish. Some days = zero. Other days = + a percentage.

It won't be as simple as you see it "in your head" - nothing is, connected with dementia!!! As we all know. For all of us it is "basic common sense" .... isn't it????

Release button on the loo pressed! You are freed. [Even though you may have deprived those shoppers of a spectacle!]

I am a futurist perhaps; I want the future of dementia to be different; which may be why I wanted the 'futuristic but SAFE toilet' to be available NOW.

.
 

Kayla

Registered User
May 14, 2006
621
0
Kent
Flu Jab

I work with children and when I was looking after my Mum, before she had to go into a Care Home, I always asked if I could have a flu jab, because I'm an only child and there was nobody else to help with Mum if I went down with flu.

The doctors always said there there weren't enough flu jabs available for the people who were entitled to them and I wasn't allowed to have a flu jab. One year, my husband and I both had flu-like colds and Mum's cleaner and carer were also ill, so we had to leave Mum on her own for several days.

When Mum thought she had run out of medications (she hadn't really) I rang the doctor's surgery to ask if a District Nurse could call in to make sure Mum was OK and take her repeat prescription. They wouldn't and they wouldn't even make up a prescription for us and leave it at the chemist to be collected.

I do think that carers should be allowed to have a flu jab, especially if they come into contact with children. I also think that GP Surgeries should be able to make arrangements to check on vulnerable patients and their medications in an emergency.

It always seemed to me, that everyone went out of their way to be unhelpful and it was really hard to get convenient doctor's appointments, which didn't involve losing time off work. I'm self-employed, so I don't get paid if I don't work.

Mum often had to wait a long time at the doctor's surgery and she found the chairs very uncomfortable, because of her rheumatoid arthritis. Lots of people would be coughing and sneezing in a stuffy waiting room and it would have been more sensible for the doctor to make a home visit, as Mum became quite unbalanced when she walked, even when using a stick.

I think flu jabs should be more widely available and not rationed, even if it was necessary for some people to pay for vaccination. I don't think that holiday jabs are rationed in any way, although there is a charge for them.

Flu could be a matter of life and death for some vulnerable people and anything to prevent the spread of flu must be a good idea.

Kayla
 

JPG1

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Jul 16, 2008
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Dear Kayla

All caregivers are entitled to demand a flu jab. Without charge. All it requires is for you to ask for it, no … to demand it, via your own GP.

Any “prime person” has the right to request a flu jab, if they are the person in the prime role of dealing with any single other vulnerable/susceptible-to-flu adult or vulnerable person. Nothing to do with dementia at all, but just that if the person you are dealing with is ‘vulnerable’ and ’susceptible’ or even immune-system compromised, then if you are the prime person in contact with that person, then you have a right to demand that flu jab.

Any person who is living with a ‘vulnerable person’, whether young or old, whether a dementia patient or not, can be protected with/by a flu jab. And then they too can protect the person they are caring for/about/with. That is the prime way that they can protect their vulnerable person from flu.

If you would ‘otherwise be placing in jeopardy’ the person(s) you are caring for and about, then you have the right to that flu jab, free of charge via the GP/Doctor in charge of the care of your ‘vulnerable’ person.

When I had my first flu jab, I was well below the age of 65, which is now the norm for being able to ask for, no, to demand a flu jab (whether or not you are a vulnerable person). It is offered freely in our local GP surgery … in fact, they send out reminders to those of us who have had a flu jab in the past.

Flu can be a matter of life or death for vulnerable people, and a flu jab is cheap --- in fact, it is almost free.

.
 

Grannie G

Volunteer Moderator
Apr 3, 2006
81,445
0
Kent
Once my husband had his diagnosis, I was given an annual flu jab when he had his, although I was under 65.
I was told it was necessary as I was his carer.
 

Kayla

Registered User
May 14, 2006
621
0
Kent
Flu jab

My Mum died in May last year after being in a Care Home and a Nursing Home for nearly two years. Before that, I asked every year if I could have a flu jab and I was always refused, because I was not eligible. I did explain that I was looking after my Mum, who was frail and I also worked with children, but that made no difference. It would have made life much easier if I could have had the vaccine.
Perhaps things are different now. Really, anybody who has contact with children or who works where there are a lot of people eg.a shopping centre, should have the option of a flu jab. Often neighbours and friends will check on elderly people living nearby and it would be a good idea if they were protected from flu, as well as the official carers.

Kayla
 

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