sicut animam suam : 'it's just life'

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Palerider

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Aug 9, 2015
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I am stunned that a care home that was doing so well has swooped so low in 12 months, but we have not been present to remind and prompt, and also I note many experienced carers have left leaving a gap of constant agency refills. Is it any wonder when I call to see how my mum is I met with a person that doesn't know.

I think this is a wider reflection on a failing care system, and anyone who defends this stumps my tolerance of care, and believe me I have seen some astonishing ideas of it.

In 2019 the NHS published its NHS Plan which depends on the joined up working of the social care system -I can only say that anyone that has faith in what will come is mistaken as the social care system faces a significant crisis (one which my mum is paying for), not only in lack of trained carers but in the collapse of the system itself. In the next five years care home placements will rise by about 80,000 with no provision for this in the current system or sustained recruitment of trained staff. Perhaps then people will stop accepting sub optimal care and start asking why the system we have is just not working. My mum and many at her stage are the last of the lucky few....god help those who come next
 

Palerider

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i used to work in a care home and we were really told off if we didnt get the basics right, teeth, glasses, hair tidy, clothes clean and if they drop food down them while eating dinner,. that came off and fresh was put on. it might take a few attempts but it was done.
These are the basics of any care training and they were fundamentals when I trained as a nurse. Even if a patient is difficult to meet their needs we would find ways if they offered opportunity of meeting them. Care these days is not the same as it was, when I mention the word care I mean a need that needs to be met and if that need is not met than that is not care
 

Palerider

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Well I seem to be over my last few rants on here, though I was annoyed at the state of play with my mums care last week. Anyway it all just drives home the problems in the social care work force. I don't know what it will take for a national change as unless this disease affects someone directly there is a lack of any appreciation of how things really are out there.
 

Lone Wolf

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Sep 20, 2020
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Particularly those in authority with the capacity to drive change. How could Matt Hancock and Helen Whately think that providing tablets would help overcome visiting bans for residents with advanced dementia?
 

Palerider

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Particularly those in authority with the capacity to drive change. How could Matt Hancock and Helen Whately think that providing tablets would help overcome visiting bans for residents with advanced dementia?
The system is broken. There are pockets of good care, but I meet others with the same issues and I just wonder how MP's would feel if we locked their families away and then gave sub-optimal care? Out of sight, out of mind .

Be interesting to see how the next decade unfolds with the NHS Plan, because it doeasn't address the growing problems and relies heavily on the social care system for it to work -erm?
 

Spamar

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Oct 5, 2013
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But this has been coming on for years. My OH was in a care home 6 years ago and things were not much better then. Fortunately for him he died after 3 months and didn’t have to put up with the indignities and more, he had gone in when I went on holiday to see cousins in the SW.
 

DianeW

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Sep 10, 2013
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It’s so very sad and unacceptable.....

My husband is a carer, and he really loves his job and the residents he looks after, has great pride in his standards of care provided, and pays great attention to detail to make people happy, the residents are very fond of him and are always pleased when he is on nights...the residents are the reason he stays in the job.

However....not all carers are the same, and often only do it for a job/money etc, where he works has been hit badly and some staff have left, or just not been competent, so he often goes in to unknown agency staff on duty with him, who sadly spend some of the night an their phones or asleep? he feels demoralised at times, but is committed and believes management saying.......it will soon be sorted out, that they are getting more staff etc, when he complains about the agency worker falling asleep and how he feels like he has to do the job of 2 people!!

Please don’t think I am saying all agency staff are like this, no he has worked with lots of excellent agency staff...but they seem they are in the minority at his home.

I think it’s very important for us all to have confidence in the care being provided to our loved ones, but I just wanted to reiterate that there really are some excellent Carers, when my loved one was in a home i experienced it from the other side and was comforted by the lovely staff.
 

Palerider

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It’s so very sad and unacceptable.....

My husband is a carer, and he really loves his job and the residents he looks after, has great pride in his standards of care provided, and pays great attention to detail to make people happy, the residents are very fond of him and are always pleased when he is on nights...the residents are the reason he stays in the job.

However....not all carers are the same, and often only do it for a job/money etc, where he works has been hit badly and some staff have left, or just not been competent, so he often goes in to unknown agency staff on duty with him, who sadly spend some of the night an their phones or asleep? he feels demoralised at times, but is committed and believes management saying.......it will soon be sorted out, that they are getting more staff etc, when he complains about the agency worker falling asleep and how he feels like he has to do the job of 2 people!!

Please don’t think I am saying all agency staff are like this, no he has worked with lots of excellent agency staff...but they seem they are in the minority at his home.

I think it’s very important for us all to have confidence in the care being provided to our loved ones, but I just wanted to reiterate that there really are some excellent Carers, when my loved one was in a home i experienced it from the other side and was comforted by the lovely staff.
Yes its very mixed. Mum has some great care staff and also some not so great ones who tend to be agency. More often that not its the qualified nurse that tends to be agency these days, though mum's unit still has one regular nurse left who is brilliant -one went on mat leave and the other left and there has been a gap ever since. But the care support workers are also becoming agency staff more and more as regualr staff get fed up and leave. I think this is where the problems crop up.

I also think the lack of visiting over the last 12 months has meant that the home have not been kept on their toes as they would have been before -I am sure fussing relatives can be a nightmare for care homes, but equally their prescence tends to be enough to maintain a balance
 

Jaded'n'faded

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Jan 23, 2019
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I think you're absolutely right - relatives may be overly fussy but they certainly keep staff on their toes.

A large part of my visits to my mum were about exactly that - checking they were doing their job and making sure mum's care wasn't lacking. Much easier to let standards drop when no one's around to notice.
 

Palerider

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Aug 9, 2015
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I think you're absolutely right - relatives may be overly fussy but they certainly keep staff on their toes.

A large part of my visits to my mum were about exactly that - checking they were doing their job and making sure mum's care wasn't lacking. Much easier to let standards drop when no one's around to notice.
I find it very difficult because I know its hard for the care staff in the field of dementia -but there has to be a balance between just not meeting needs and at least trying to :rolleyes: . To be fair I'm not as demanding as some, but I do have standards that I exercise as a professional and would also expect for my mum
 

Palerider

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Anyway moving on from my dissapointments of last week, I have managed to get through to interview for my doctoral programme. I am celerbrating alone as all my colleagues are at work and busy
 

anxious annie

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Jan 2, 2019
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Sorry to hear about your mum's fall @Palerider , and also how care isn't quite what it should be.
I've just got back from staying at my sister's and had a couple of visits to see mum. The weather wasn't good enough to take her out for a walk, so my husband and I had 2 indoor visits.
They are in a designated room, I'd rather be in mum's own room where there are familiar items, photos etc to promote chat and so I can have a "tidy" as I used to pre covid. Also if visits were in residents own room there wouldn't be the limits of a 30 minute slot. It seems that all care homes follow guidance, but interpret it as they prefer.
Mum's carers are lovely and she is happier now indoor visits allowed.
I wonder if anyone can explain to me why, as a visitor, after my LFT I had to wear mask, apron and gloves ( I wasn't doing any "personal care" ), but the carer who brought mum to the visitor room only had to wear a mask?
I know the thought is now that infection risk from a surface ( eg my jumper?) is low, and also the apron is so flimsy and doesn't cover my arms etc What a huge cost to taxpayers and the environment if all this plastic isn't for any real purpose? Just ticking a box?
I wonder if you know why visitors have to wear the ppe @Palerider? If there's a good reason I will happily wear it, but mum always asks me why?
Ps good luck with your interview
 

Palerider

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Aug 9, 2015
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Sorry to hear about your mum's fall @Palerider , and also how care isn't quite what it should be.
I've just got back from staying at my sister's and had a couple of visits to see mum. The weather wasn't good enough to take her out for a walk, so my husband and I had 2 indoor visits.
They are in a designated room, I'd rather be in mum's own room where there are familiar items, photos etc to promote chat and so I can have a "tidy" as I used to pre covid. Also if visits were in residents own room there wouldn't be the limits of a 30 minute slot. It seems that all care homes follow guidance, but interpret it as they prefer.
Mum's carers are lovely and she is happier now indoor visits allowed.
I wonder if anyone can explain to me why, as a visitor, after my LFT I had to wear mask, apron and gloves ( I wasn't doing any "personal care" ), but the carer who brought mum to the visitor room only had to wear a mask?
I know the thought is now that infection risk from a surface ( eg my jumper?) is low, and also the apron is so flimsy and doesn't cover my arms etc What a huge cost to taxpayers and the environment if all this plastic isn't for any real purpose? Just ticking a box?
I wonder if you know why visitors have to wear the ppe @Palerider? If there's a good reason I will happily wear it, but mum always asks me why?
Ps good luck with your interview
Firstly I am surprised you still having to visit in a designated room. I have been fortunate enough to visit mum in her own room, but then that has brought on questions about her care....clearly things have not been done that were previously to lockdown. I know its been hard, but care homes have not had the influx they had before lockdown so I fail to understand the lack of care, but then I have observed the 'i'm just agency' marker which resolves them of any meanignful contact or care and I am speaking from other experiences than care homes, but the jist is the same.

I personally don't understand the poor qaulity of todays PPE....but this is a risk measure on paper more than the practicality. I remember working at St Barts, London on heamatology and in those days we had robust aprons and gloves and sometimes masks -the quality of todays PPE is not the same and I actually wonder if it has any benefit at the cost to the taxpayer? But their is another story!!!

Finally there is now complete evidence if you have had two vaccines you are resilliant to SARS-CoV-2 -but the doors to care homes still haven't opened
 
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