My Mother's Life Dedicated to the Only Woman I'll Love, My Mother.

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?