What can be done with rogue agencies with 24/7 live in care. It makes up about 80% of them. I have been a live in carer for 6 years and have often put into abuse service user situations or put into situations when it's not physically possible to do the amount of work you need to do throughout the day and sleep deprivation gets immense which then leads to a health and safety issue.
Two of the worst situations I've been put into are one lady with advanced alzheimers who would be aggressive throughout the entire day and shadow you constantly to a point I couldn't shower or had problems even going to the toilet. If this wasn't bad enough I would be lucky to get 4 hours broken sleep. She would be constantly banging on the carers door for that 4 hours. I had to put a set of drawers up against the door so she wouldn't keep coming in and pull my bedding off constantly. The agency knew all about this as it had gone on for a long time but all they done was place another carer there and so this kept going on.
The second situation was a lady with advanced Alzheimers and her husband who had had a stroke in a wheelchair. Although the gentleman had help with Community carers coming in,the lady was waking up about every hour throughout the night and prone to falls. I would work from 7am to midnight solid and then be waking up every hour. Although I alerted the agency they just didn't care. As again they were just thinking of there fees and would just send in the next carer.I was in tears due to sleep deprivation and physically couldn't see in front of me during the day as the sleep deprivation made the whole world 'warp' in front of me. These people were rich but the son was only concerned about his inheritance so wouldn't get another carer in.
Due to all the cut backs it means carers are being placed in these situations more and more now and along with nursing duties,social workers jobs also and also decrease our pay on top of it due to people not being able to afford care.
I would like to know what can actually be done about these common situations we're placed in.
The added problem is live in carers put up with a lot because if they lose their placement they are also left homeless.
Many thanx
This is quite a complex question which is why I suspect there are no answers yet.
I will resist the temptation to say I mistok this for a casmetic complexion enhancing question..(?)
I was concerned particularly at the latter part of the post where it implied that motivation to be a live in carer was homelessness!
Or am I being unfair....some of us might be Social Workers because we need to pay the mortgage and care for our families..?
All I'm saying is that there should be 'some' consideration for the carers position also not just the clients.
Silver Sage: This is quite a complex question which is why I suspect there are no answers yet. I will resist the temptation to say I mistok this for a casmetic complexion enhancing question..(?) I was concerned particularly at the latter part of the post where it implied that motivation to be a live in carer was homelessness! Or am I being unfair....some of us might be Social Workers because we need to pay the mortgage and care for our families..?
probably a bit unfair and unrealistic - I know the only time I ever considered it its been to do with how much Ive hated where Im living. An yeah am a great believer that if the social work wage was halved tomorrow no-one would go into work !
and also not sure that that was what s/he meant - more about the fact that if your on a low wage you are obviously not going to be able to keep a spare home or room available on the off chance you become unemployed - you can be sacked fairly quickly i would have thought and contrary to popular belief its fairly difficult to get somewhere to live off the authority (and even harder to get advance rent etc) - and if youve been sacked for misconduct (the definition the dss uses is fairly broad from memory) you may even be considered making yourself intentionally homeless? (no idea if the latters true it wouldnt surprise me tho) and then you have even less chance of getting help.
melly666: What can be done with rogue agencies with 24/7 live in care. It makes up about 80% of them. I have been a live in carer for 6 years and have often put into abuse service user situations or put into situations when it's not physically possible to do the amount of work you need to do throughout the day and sleep deprivation gets immense which then leads to a health and safety issue. Two of the worst situations I've been put into are one lady with advanced alzheimers who would be aggressive throughout the entire day and shadow you constantly to a point I couldn't shower or had problems even going to the toilet. If this wasn't bad enough I would be lucky to get 4 hours broken sleep. She would be constantly banging on the carers door for that 4 hours. I had to put a set of drawers up against the door so she wouldn't keep coming in and pull my bedding off constantly. The agency knew all about this as it had gone on for a long time but all they done was place another carer there and so this kept going on. The second situation was a lady with advanced Alzheimers and her husband who had had a stroke in a wheelchair. Although the gentleman had help with Community carers coming in,the lady was waking up about every hour throughout the night and prone to falls. I would work from 7am to midnight solid and then be waking up every hour. Although I alerted the agency they just didn't care. As again they were just thinking of there fees and would just send in the next carer.I was in tears due to sleep deprivation and physically couldn't see in front of me during the day as the sleep deprivation made the whole world 'warp' in front of me. These people were rich but the son was only concerned about his inheritance so wouldn't get another carer in. Due to all the cut backs it means carers are being placed in these situations more and more now and along with nursing duties,social workers jobs also and also decrease our pay on top of it due to people not being able to afford care. I would like to know what can actually be done about these common situations we're placed in. The added problem is live in carers put up with a lot because if they lose their placement they are also left homeless. Many thanx
you can only do as much as you can - you need to set your limits and stick to them - working until you drop isnt going to do anyone any favours. What do other people who work at the agency say? are they having the same issues with being expected to do too much and not being listened to by the agency?
Yes exactly. I'm just saying that there's never any consideration about the carer's sudden change of circumstances. I've been deserted by an agency before when my post suddenly finished. If anything happens ie. if the service user suddenly need to go in to hospital etc we have to vacate the premisses immediately. This happened at 9pm at night in the middle of Norfolk in the country and had no public services to get anywhere. A taxi would've cost over £100 to get to the nearest train station which we have to pay for ourselves. I was lucky enough for a neighbour I got friendly with to put me up or else I would've have to have paid this out or sleep rough. The agency didn't care and at that time where was I suppose to go at that short notice?
All the other carers had the same problem and left after a week. I stuck it out for 3 weeks. All they do is send in another carer to burn out and that's all. After all all they're bothered about are their fees getting paid.
Resign and go for Constructive Dismissal.
We can't it's on a self employed basis but ran through an agency and it's rules. It's not that simple but unfortunately the agencies seem to be more or less the same.