I changed care agencies last week because the former agency forgot to send out a care aide one day, and DH was left alone for 3.5 hours without my knowledge. This new agency's care aides cost the same, but they take their jobs more seriously. I know that the new Care Aide came up with several innovative approaches to DH's care, but the staff apparently didn't like it and are not cooperating with her in many other minor ways. For example, she asks the staff to help her transfer DH from bed to wheelchair, and the staff tell her they are too busy. She asks about laundry disposal and pickup, they give her the wrong info, or tell her to do it herself. She told me today that in the 20 years she has worked in Care facilities, she has never been so frustrated. Says she's worried about her own future, when she may need to be cared for in a facility. She is not supplied with clean linen or gloves unless she asks 2-3 times. I found this interesting: this is what I found, but I thought it was the norm nowadays. According to her, it's not; this present facility is the worst she's worked in for non-cooperation. I told her to tell her supervisor. (I haven't quite recovered from my other battles to want to take this one up, at least yet.)
mary75--I have had numerous agency-employed aides tell me that they used to work in care facilities and quit because they couldn't stand the things they saw go on there. That's why they went into private duty jobs. If you read the book "Dancing With Rose", you will see more of what goes on.
I have a friend who volunteers and goes into several local care homes on a regular basis. She is a great source for recommendations about specific facilities. i would think that paramedics would be another good source for recommendations (if you happen to know one to ask) as nursing homes are frequent users of ambulance personnel. According to my friend, there are only a few places she would want to see herself or husband move into . . .
Mary75, I wonder if the facility personnel are resentful of the "outside" caregiver and therefore deliberately try to make her job difficult. Sometimes even in a "regular" business people are not helpful to new employees and throw roadblocks in their way. "Find out yourself." "Look for it yourself." "That's not my job."
This is really OT, but a week ago I took my hb to the podiatrist for nail trimming. A community bus driver brought a woman from the local NH in and set her wheelchair against an appropriate wall and then went to the desk to register her. The medical staff didn't know she was coming. The bus driver had no paperwork; she'd only been called to come take the woman to the podiatrist which she did. The woman didn't know why she was there, either. Medical staff said the nh had done the same thing many times before. She told the bus driver to continue with her route, and she'd call the nh and they'd take care of everything from that point. I made a mental check on the negative side of my already in work pros/cons on the local nh--cons are ahead.
Zibby--unless it was an emergency, I don't understand why a NH would send a patient OUT to a podiatrist. In this area, facilities have a podiatrist come in at regularly scheduled intervals. My Dad lives in an ALF. he is "on the list" and sees the podiatrist that way (even the adult day programs have podiatrists come in). It sounds to me like that's a flaw with the NH you described, even if things had gone successfully, why take a chance sending a patient out and leaving them on their own???
Zibby, yes, I think you're right, the NH staff are resentful of outside staff, unless they are of the same nationality as the majority of the NH staff. I had originally put this in my post but deleted it because it sounded prejudiced. Canada has made it easy for citizens of this particular country to immigrate, especially in the nanny and health care field: it's really our own fault because with our decreasing population of younger people for the working force, and our increasing senior population (not to mention our own Canadians wanting more professional jobs that being care aides), we created the situation. I think there's going to be a big change, soon. Many young-to-middle-aged people have said to me, "This scares me, to think that I will be treated this way when I'm old and sick." The other factor in my Caucasian Aide's experience is that she is very, very good. The comparison with her performance and their's must hurt.
Although most of the aides who cared for my dad, who died of Parkinson's in '09, were from Mali, Malawi, and Nigeria, and they were excellent, kind and smart. I will go to that agency first, if/when that becomes the next step for me. You're right though, about how there are many immigrants in the field of health care aides. One young woman at the rehab facility where my dad was for a short stint was from the former Yugoslavia by way of Germany.
I think it is for the same reason Mexicans work in our fields and motel/hotels - too many whites think they are too good to do that menial labor or to work for minimum wages. Even though I did menial work, my kids (33,34) think they are too good to do it. And, the millions of babies aborted over the decades has left a gaping hole of available labor in this country so they have to come from somewhere. In the healthcare field many of those from other countries are very caring and gentle. But, as with anyone there will always be those that are the exception and should leave their field of work.
emily--if your hubby is like mine, he won't like having people with accents taking care of him. There is a marked difference in his behavior when an American is here--because he can understand them! Poor guy is having so much trouble communicating, he doesn't need foreign accents! Perhaps Parkinson's is different in that aspect, or maybe it's just my husband's quirk.
That's interesting. I don't think he'd care. Philosophically he's inherently egalitarian. But to have trouble understanding accents is something we haven't dealt with yet, so that's an unknown.
My bil was in a foster home for two months where the couple running it were from Romania. They were very nice but hard to understand. Plus, they thought they had to fix fancy meals when my bil and the rest of the residents would have been just as happy with a simple meat and potato dinner. He was use to his fiber cereal with bananas warmed up (my sister furnished it all) but they insisted on oatmeal (he hated), eggs, toast, bacon, etc. The bananas sat and rotted. Their hearts were in the right place, but they just did not get it.
My point about the accents is not about disliking non-native English speakers; it's just that when someone is struggling to understand EVERYONE, an accent adds another complication! A similar problem would probably exist if someone was American, but had a heavy accent from another region.
This is an aside from the NH topic but related to the language issue. When my mom was in the late stages of AD, she reverted to her first language, German. She was born in North Dakota to a German immigrant father and a first generation German mother. They spoke German at home and when they went to school they spoke English. Somewhere my mother lost her English and only spoke German. My dad did not understand German and as a result, he did not allow my mother to teach us German as little kids..what a loss that was. Now I risk this again unless I can spruce up my Spanish. My husband's mother and father came to this country from Mexico and like my grandparents, he was told to speak Spanish in the home and English at school..so he speaks both languages with no accent at all..but heaven help me if he forgets his English as my Spanish is weak..going to bone up on it..
Language difficulties can appear in strange ways! Who could have ever suspected that one could lose the language yet retain the first one learned.
I was recently visiting someone in hospital who shared a room with a person who had ALZ. This person's mother tongue was Dutch and they were mostly speaking in Dutch. Made for some major communication problems for the nursing staff. There was one nurse from India, another from China, another from the Phillipines and some Caucasian nurses. He'd be calling out in Dutch (often it was eventually figured out that he needed to use the bathroom but only after a lot of guesses on the part of the staff). He occasionally still spoke in English but mostly Dutch. The nurses would gently be asking him to speak English whilst I wondered if he was asking them to speak Dutch??!!! lol! And yes, it must have been even more confusing for him when one of the nurses with an accent was speaking to him . . . I had trouble understanding a couple of the nurses due to their accents. Their care was of a high standard which was good to see.
I still have my English accent and my DH doesn't understand me half the time. We have only been married for a little over 45 years!!! I put it down to him not processing what is being said by me or anyone else as well as the TV. He gets the wrong message or information most of the time.
Our aide has a heavy german accent. I have trouble understanding her most of the time. She does a great job and will do most anything my wife needs. I am leaving this week for 3 days to attend a business meeting in Las Vegas. This will be the first time in 3 years that I have not spent the night with my DW. I feel very good about the aid staying with my DW till I get back. She used to work in one of the local nursing homes and told me that she did not like what she saw there and decided to work in homes and that she liked that better.
Before Alz came along my husband had a serious infection and was hospitalized. The night shift nurse came in to visit - he'd never seen her - and she had a Scotch burr. My husband had mild hearing problems but he couldn't understand a word she was saying. She reported to the intern that he was not making sense or responding to her. The intern was new on the job (it was August - the worst time in the world to be in a teaching hospital!!) so she sent him off to have a CAT scan (or MRI? - it was in a trailer outside) and called me at home (at midnight) to tell me he'd had a stroke. While waiting my husband noticed a ceiling light that was out, up above him, and helpfully pointed it out. That convinced THEM he was crazy!! I went to the hospital and he came back on a gurney telling me that they'd taken him outside and then into some kind of trailer. Which convinced ME that he was having delusions, until I found out that's exactly what had happened!
Great story now, briegull! But it must have been mind-boggling to you both at the time. It belongs in a move. Remember those old British "Carry on, Doctor" movies?