Displaying 1 - 6 of 294 entries.

It Just Is Not Fair

  • Posted on January 27, 2012 at 4:07 pm

Honestly, it just isn’t right that a company takes on the task of providing Home Support for the Elderly, when they do NOT have properly trained personnel.

It is not fair, that our Seniors are subjected to such inadequate care, given all they have done for our society, during their earlier lives.

With the regular worker off today, I had to cancel the substitute being sent for the morning, not because I am an asshole, but simply because it is My Mother.  I cannot, in good conscience subject her to pain, to rough and incomplete treatment, nor can I risk her safety.

My choices for this morning, was Nerissa or Shirley.

Shirley is okay for a last ditch sponge bath, but that is if Mom can manage getting up on her own. I doubt if Shirley could handle assisting Mom in standing, nor do I think she could safely complete a sponge bath gently, given Mom’s lack of strength.

As to Nerissa, well her last visit was a total disaster. It was hard to communicate, let alone get her to do the tasks assigned. That merely adds stress to Mom, and takes what little strength she has, and uses it up way too fast. It makes for a tough night, and sometimes next day or two.

I wonder, what about those elderly patients, who have no one at home, when the Beacon Community Services worker arrive?

  • Consider that there is no phoning of Patients, when the schedule is changed.
  • Think about how you are in your twilight years, and suddenly are confronted by someone you have never met before?
  • How does it feel to have to explain what a person is there for, when you yourself are a bit unfocused?

It makes me wonder, if society really cares about those who are elderly.

I am tired, and perhaps I expect too much.  Maybe the Eskimos had it right, and when someone gets old, becomes a drag on the community they are set adrift on a slab of ice, to drift along the frozen water, until they perish.   I can’t accept that, but it seems that is a lot kinder than what we are subjecting our elderly to.

Maybe it is just being old fashioned, but I wonder, how will it be if I reach the age of Eighty, never mind Ninety Four?

Even if you are not trained, if you have being doing this job for a few months, you should have picked up some knowledge, some inkling of how to treat old people. Yet it seems that isn’t the case.

I should have cancelled this afternoons worker as well, least Mom wouldn’t be drifting off a half hour after she finally left. I mean she is exhausted, from being rushed, and being treated roughly, or maybe the better term is  carelessly.

I simply do not get it, but what I do get, is that this simply isn’t fair.

Why are transfers so difficult for so many

  • Posted on January 24, 2012 at 4:21 pm

I have to admit, I am confused as to why simple transfers from the couch to the wheelchair (actually a special transfer chair, that resembles a wheelchair) are so difficult for so many of the Home Support workers we get?   Honestly, even the more experienced women seem to have a difficulty in doing what I think, is a rather simple manoveur.

Okay, risk to back injury, but if you brace your legs properly, and lift with your legs, the risk should be extremely minimal.

With your arms under the Patient’s armpits,your hands are around the shoulder blades It allows them to place their arms under yours, and hold on. You have the strength of your arms ( not the hands ) to bear their weight, and with your leg bent, it becomes a simple matter of simply straightening the leg, to provide the necessary force to lift them up, and gently.

So what is the deal here? Why can’t so many do it?

I mean Tracy who is smaller in stature and weight than Mom does it effortlessly, as does Trinity and Anjoli, who really are considerably smaller than Mom.  I mean they are much more slight in build, but they have no issue in getting her up on her feet, then doing the shuffle to get her into the transfer chair, or out of it onto the couch.

Yvette can manage it, and yet others like Janet, Rose, Edna can’t seem to do it.  Yet all of them claim years and years of experience doing it.

Perhaps I should offer my services to Beacon, in HOW TO PROPERLY TRAIN THEIR HOME SUPPORT WORKERS?

I would like to just take that one hour, off.  I get it in the morning when Beacon doesn’t screw around with the schedule, but the afternoon is becoming a total nightmare. New workers, or those who can’t lift Mom up, is way too frequent.  It just seems that when these girls show up, that I spend the rest of the afternoon, and evening, sorting out the stress they have created, by not being able to get her up.

And maybe Beacon needs to understand what it does.

  1. It causes stress, which isn’t good for someone with her heart condition.
  2. Old people fixate, and Mom thinks that they have trouble, because she is over weight and so she winds up pushing away her food.
  1. Fact is, she isn’t overweight by all that much, but she needs to eat what she can.  Thinking she is too fat for these women, only makes her eat less, which weakens her already low stamina and strength.
  • It is unsafe. She can easily twist her foot, or worse, break a bone, because they rush her, or try to lift her by grasping his arm firmly. She has Brittle Bones, a simple hard grasp can crush her bone.
  • The stress and worry, lead to her inability to force her body to function, such as in having a good piddle, or poop.  Again not healthy.
  • It diminishes her strength, which isn’t good to begin with, thus it makes her more tired, weaker.

I seriously wonder if the people who hire these women, have a clue as to what the job entails?  It isn’t easy, and Worker’s need to be matched with Patients.  Under the current system, the exact opposite happens.   You can’t send someone who can’t do the job, simply because you are enamored by the computer program that adjusts workers/patient schedules.

These are people, NOT NUMBERS.

One day, someone will get hurt, or worse, DIE.   What will Beacon Community Services say then?  What will VIHA do then?

 

The Process of Dying

  • Posted on January 21, 2012 at 10:03 am

Yesterday was one of those days.  You get frustrated because your life revolves around watching someone slowly dying and you know, there is nothing you can do about it.  You are helpless in preventing Death from achieving its goal, so when things that you can control, are thrown out of whack, you lash out.

The problem isn’t that people are uncaring, it is that Business is more concerned about the bottom line, than about the people that GIVE them that bottom line.  From the consumer who buys their products / services, to those who help sell the products or provide the services.

When those you answer to, are more concerned about money, than people, then why should they care?

They aren’t being paid to do that, and let’s be honest, we ALL have our own headaches to contend with.

Yet I still Believe that WE have the power to change that. I know the concept of One Person, One Vote, seems archaic today, but then, nearly half of us don’t bother to make that choice. WE STAY HOME.

AND THAT IS WHAT HAS LED TO THIS CORPORATE CONTROL OVER OUR VERY LIVES.

Beacon Community Services has some damn good people working for them, but they are being burned out, and it isn’t because the job is hard, or difficult.  It is because they CARE.   And when you care, it takes a huge emotional toll on you, more so when the people you work for, simply don’t care.

People like Trinity, Tracy, Yvette, Billie, THEY CARE but then we have others like Edna, Rose and many many more, who are there for the paycheque only.  They have closed themselves off, for whatever reason.   It comes from an operation that simply wants bodies to fill the gaps, unconcerned if they are qualified or not.

When you reach this stage of life, to have to be at home 24/7 watching the person who raised you, slowly dying, as age takes its toll, you realize that all the things she taught you, no longer hold sway.

When I grew up, you could rely on Government for many things.  IF a business was mistreating its workers, they would insure it stopped, or was corrected. When you went to buy groceries, you never had to worry about tainted foods, or expired foods, because Government insured that didn’t happen.

No, it wasn’t perfect, there were instances when things slipped through the cracks, but they were rare, not common place. Today FOOD & PRODUCT RECALLS are a daily occurrence. It isn’t that there are just more products, more food being consumed, it is that Government has abdicated its responsibility to the very people who they are supposed to be watching over.

Business is an Entity.   Government is elected by People, and is supposed to be responsible to US.

As you sit by, watching a person dying, bit by bit, you see how the erosion of Government Responsibility impacts you more than if you were in your 30′s or 40′s going about your daily life. You see how simple things like buying food becomes a chore, and you wonder, about all those old people, who have no one to subsidize their income, who must manage on what little they have. You see people take advantage of them by rushing in, rushing out, leaving them exhausted and stressed.

Something that just hastens the dying process.

 

Total Lack of Compassion

  • Posted on January 20, 2012 at 2:41 pm

outsourcing is wrongToday is just one more example, of how Beacon Community Services FAILS ITS PATIENTS.

To begin with, how many times are you expected to go online, to check a schedule?

I am assuming that somehow Beacon Community Services expects its Patients to be checking the schedule multiple times per hour.  Yes PER HOUR, because it can change in a blink of an eye.

For example, this morning they changed the time of the regular worker, by a half hour.

Just now, they changed the scheduled worker for this afternoon to another worker.

Can you just see some elderly person going online and checking their schedule each and every hour? I CAN, because old people get nervous, they can imagine all sorts of things, and when you have NO CONSISTENCY IN SUPPLY REGULAR HOME WORKERS, well, you know they are going to be anxious.

Course, just how many elderly people are actually online, or able to use a computer effectively?  Guess those who can’t, or aren’t online, simply sit in urine and feces, hoping that eventually the Beacon worker will show up, or that whoever does arrive, can figure out what to do.

And that is a mild statement.

It is an obvious lack of compassion for those intrusted into their care, by a Government that only considers the bottom line, and not give a damn about the people they are impacting, by outsourcing Home Care to cruel, heartless, greedy corporations.

YES THAT IS YOU BEACON COMMUNITY SERVICES   -  A GREEDY COLD HEARTED CORPORATION

It is a Snow Day

  • Posted on January 18, 2012 at 2:37 pm

Winter has arrived today.

Lots of snow on the ground, more than yesterday, but if you are used to it, well, you’d laugh at the amount. I mean it is about an inch or two, which isn’t a lot, but here in this city, it is like the end of the world.

Which of course also means, changes for workers for Mom.

Which I can understand.

The real issue, is that companies like Beacon Community Services are not equipped to handle emergencies, given they can’t handle the day to day routine.

These firms need to have on hand, a supply of substitutes, who can pop in at a minutes notice, and effectively help those who need it.

Course in an ideal world, the regular workers would ALL be properly trained, so they could go from one patient to another, and be effective. Unfortunately, that simply isn’t the case with most of the current crop of BCS employees.   It starts at the top, and when the Top is only interested in her stipend, well, why should those under her, care for anything else but their own stipend?

Thankfully there are still some old fashioned people working there, like Tracy, Trinity and others, who care about the patient, not about the money.

I think we could add Tammy to that list, who was this mornings substitute.   She followed the instructions, and did an okay job of it too.  Least she didn’t just accept what BCS told her.  Maybe that is the key for substitutes.  Instead of listening to what the Company tells them, they should listen to what the Patient tells them?

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