Please take this post as a joke. Just like I take Mums carers annoyances as a joke.
I finally had a key safe and camera fitted. Certain paid carers are not happy. they have to spend an extra 2 minutes to access our house.
Some of them are so stupid, they don’t realise I can hear what they are saying outside our front door.
“He’s so lazy, he only got it fitted so he doesn’t have to get out of bed in the morning”
“Why does he want his door locked”
“I hope the doors not going to be locked in the afternoon”
The funny thing is I now have video proof of certain carers times. Mums morning visit lasted 12 minutes on Friday!! How do you access the key safe, hoist Mum out of bed, sit Mum on the commode, give a full body wash while giving Mum time to poop. Dress her, wheel Mum into the living room, hoist her into her chair. Write in the “Memory Book”, make a cup of coffee and turn the TV on. IN TWELVE MINUTES!!!
The answer to that is very simple (as you well know), you can’t.
I don’t like to be rushed so I do try to make sure I have sufficient time to do things, however I can work efficiently, (50 years as a self employed chippy made sure of that), and it still takes me ten minutes just to get my wife onto the commode.
Remove bedding in an orderly manner (which means I can return it later without facing a puzzle).
Disconnect night-bag - and take to toilet and empty, (otherwise it’s just another job to do later).
Collect sling and roll into place, removing lower clothing at the same time.
Attach leg bag with appropriate strapping.
Fetch commode and put into place.
Fetch hoist, connect sling straps to hoist and hoist wife to commode.
Detach sling and re-arrange wife’s feet to a comfortable position.
Remove hoist from room.
Cover wife’s legs with dressing gown if required.
Retire to kitchen for anything up to an hour while the wife contemplates whatever.
Definitely ten minutes, as near as makes no difference.
Well, good for you! Sounds like a good 30-45 minutes job to me. I remember it took about 10 minutes for one of the two carers mum had to write in the book. I watched from upstairs. Also, the carers were upset that I had the keysafe placed round the back of the house so it would be out of view from the street. Often, they’d ring the doorbell anyway and I’d have to stop what i was doing to let them in.
I fitted a key safe for agency carers too. I hadn’t got time to stopping what I was doing (getting us both ready to go out,) plus I might be on the loo! The agency switched from logging arrival from the house phone ( which they never did,) to having to sign in and out by using a chip that they scanned with their mobile. They suggested I attached it to the key safe but I attached it to the care plan & logs folder. When I go to work, I need to be signed in at my start time and ready to work , not in the car park.
I would ignore all grumbling but I would be reporting all ridiculously short calls - not acceptable nor fair on you or your Mum.
That’s what my wife’s carers have to work with, 45 minutes, to wash,dress, strap up her leg-bag, apply various unguents, change her earrings, etc. etc., it rarely takes them 45, more like 35. She’s then ready to go on the commode, (the rolling whilst washing and dressing promotes that apparently), they rarely see out the full 45 minutes, but were they to wait for her to finish on the commode it could be 90 minutes!
I fitted the key safe after two young lads knocked and when I ignored them, they came onto our property looking through our
windows. It scared me. “What if Mum was alone in the room”, “What if they decided to walk through our front door”…
Yet today Mums morning carers happily walked off without locking the door behind them. If it hadn’t been for the camera I’d of assumed the door was locked.
I love so many of Mums carers, but there is just a minority who constantly let the side down. Lazy, apathetic and its getting to the point where I don’t want them in our house anymore…
Not locking the door is a safeguarding issue and needs reporting, Your mum is vulnerable and living in the community and needs to be protected from harm.
Leaving the door unlocked, anyone can wonder in.
And be careful with the keysafe number, one carer wrote down all the names and address’s and key numbers, you would have thought they would put it in code or something.
the carers car was stolen with the notepad in and urgently all the key safe numbers had to be changed.
Today has been more positive, carers saying how easy the key safe is to use. One carer saying she hadn’t seen one like it before (I went out of my way to buy a safe with big buttons)…
I’m also having a motion sensor light fitted on Wednesday so they can see the safe when it gets dark. Other than provide an umbrella walk in service, they are spoilt carers!!!
I will totally heed the advice on changing the number regularly.
Wiping it down is a funny issue, its the one time Carers spread germs among themselves without wearing gloves.
Just check that the key is in the key safe every so often, the amount of carers who take the key out and put the key in the pocket.
Then suddenly remember when at home.
We have a clever system, the emergency pendent company had stored and could pass on the number of the key safe to the ambulance service, not much use if the key is in a carers pocket.
Why should they be moody? Seriously some people. I actually fired a carer for shouting for no reason (made multiple complaints about her to the company). I also reported the moron to the council and the authorities as well. Can you complain about them or not?
When we get respite care, I’m having a intruder alarm fitted. And will inform the carers not to set off the fire alarm.
It is just a small minority, Mum has a rotation of around 12 carers and most are lovely.
I think when I made this post I’d done something positive to protect Mum and I (I’m disabled with Spondylitis) and to hear a carer saying the only reason I’d had it fitted was because I was to lazy to unlock the door got me down.
Especially as the carer in question was the first to visit after two young lads had came onto our property looking through the window and I’d told her about it. I think her comment was hurtful and spiteful.
Believe me when it gets dark, the door will constantly be locked and maybe whenever the mouthy carer is visiting in the meantime it will also be locked:-)
Maybe one day, she is the worse out of all Mum’s carers. Mum dislikes her too. Sorry for the rude comment, but I have nicknames for all the carers so Mum knows who’s coming…Mum would never remember the names, but descriptive names work, her nickname is “Little S**T”. Mum groans when I tell her she is coming.
She is the carer responsible for trying to force Mum into bed two times without letting her sit on the commode, the only carer in over 700 visits who accused Mum of hitting her. The carer who told me Mum had shouted at her when Mum had shouted “I haven’t even had the chance to sit down yet” while being lifted into bed against her will. The carer who also leaves a total mess in our toilet.
When I read the above, I wish I had the guts to exclude her for both Mum and mine sakes…
This is why I refused a key safe I don’t trust the high turn over of staff not to misuse the code. Report the short visits, send a copy of CCTV if necessary but first and foremost block the carers who don’t lock doors etc. It might take you being firm as from experience the care agency will find many excuses why you cannot do that but you are entitled to block any carer from coming who poses a risk such as not completing the visit or leaving doors unlocked.
Please do NOT back down on this or let them keep visiting because, sadly from experience, I know it will get worse. Please nip it in the bud before it because a serious safety issue for both of you.
This is why I don’t trust carers. Report the toilet issue this is serious. Just find the courage to fire the asshole. People like her are a burden to the care industry.
Funnily enough this morning the other carer responsible for forcing Mum into bed without commode time was here.
As they left one of my favourite carers was saying how I’d bought a nice key safe and how easy it was to use (I had actually gone out of my way to spend more money on an easy one for the carers to use).
The tirade back from the awful carer amazed me, “I F’ing hate it, its F’ing awful, it’s not the box it’s just F’ing awkward to use”.
To think this person was in our house five minutes earlier caring for my Mum. It made me so angry again. The key safe is so easy to use, she is just annoyed that it’s added an extra 3 minutes to the call time. I showed the video to Mum and joked that maybe I should play the video back on full blast next time she visits, just so she can hear how pathetic she sounds.
My main fear about blocking carers is the detrimental effect it will have on the service provided. At the moment our care agency has two on holiday and a few more of sick. I’d rather have a duo of a good and bad carer on time, than two good carers an hour late. I know which carers to keep an eye on. If the two idiots which are tweedle dee and tweedle dum are ever paired together, I will go and sit on Mums bed and observe everything they do…
Don’t let fear stop you from doing the right thing. I’d rather deal with a good carer who is late than a unprofessional carer who backstabs me… each to their own however
At the end of the day, it’s Mum sat in her own mess or wet clothes. Mum’s not stupid, her personality changes when she is in a mess. It’s awful to watch. But like you say, each to there own.