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Home Support is for…

  • Posted on February 3, 2012 at 3:28 pm
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I wonder at times, just who is Home Support services supposed to help?

If the Patient is lucky enough to have an in home caregiver, then I suppose Home Support serves a dual purpose.

It allows for a brief respite for that Caregiver, as well as for the Patient, in providing services like washing, cleaning, etc.

Thing is, what about those who have no regular caregiver, such as a Son or Daughter, who lives there?

Today’s Health Services are greatly stretched, but are we using what resources we have, efficiently?

The longer we have in home support from Beacon Community Services, the more I wonder if perhaps the Government has too quickly abdicated its responsibility, under the guise of saving money.

Can a private organization actually provide better service than a Government run agency?

What about accountability? 

This is the problem today, not just in Home Support, Health Care, but in all aspects of our lives. We have suddenly gone from having a Government that provides services to the Citizens, to one that simply PAY FOR THOSE SERVICES.     Take the Food Industry.  CIFA has no teeth anymore, and as a result we have much more food recalls than when Government OVERSAW the entire Industry.

Is this also not what is happening to our Health Care System?

When was the last time that VIHA officials actually called on some of those patients, to check up on the care they have been receiving from Beacon Community Services?

I have never received a visit, in over 2½ years.  Consider that the taxpayer pays approximately $37 per hour of service.  In two years, Mom has received a minimum of 912 hours of service.  That equals about $33,744.00  in taxpayer money.   Doesn’t it just seem prudent, and proper to check up to insure that all that money was wisely spent?   And if you consider it, the Gross return on that money is 50% to Beacon, based on them only paying about $20 an hour for their employees.

So here is a private NON PROFIT company receiving about $15,000.00 for one old lady’s home support care over the last 2½ years.  Doesn’t it make sense to be checking up on that?

I don’t know, all these so called Conservatives, like Christie Clark, Stephen Harper, talk a good game about fiscal responsibility, and yet they seem unconcerned about the companies they have hired to provide services to us.  They are unconcerned about checking up on them, on insuring that these private firms are actually adhering to their contracts.

I don’t know, but to me that just seems the exact opposite of what a so called Fiscal Conservative should be doing.

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I Am Tired of Doing Beacon’s Job

  • Posted on January 15, 2012 at 4:18 pm
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Honestly, I should be getting paid by Beacon Community Services for doing their blasted job.

How the hell do you send someone to a person’s home, who isn’t informed of what they are supposed to do? What about those who don’t have anyone present to tell them?

Then again, why should I have to clean up after them?  So a person didn’t use the commode, or at least it seems it wasn’t used, YOU STILL NEED TO WASH IT OUT!

Like come on here, you get 50 minutes in the home, and you can’t be arsed to put the hand towel in the laundry basket, as instructed, you can’t rinse out the commode pail, as instructed to.   I have to do it, and I am not getting no $20 an hour for my efforts.

How hard is it to actually transfer a lady from the couch to a wheelchair?   I do it several times a day, but honestly, seems to me that some of these workers don’t have a clue on how to effect a SAFE TRANSFER.

Yes, Mom can’t walk, but with assistance can stand and turn.  So let us put the transfer chair in front of her, then reach over it, to pull her up to a standing position?  ARE YOU FLAMING NUTS?

A worker is given 50 minutes to do their task. Doesn’t require that much time, but better to have extra time, than less. Means no rushing for a 94 year old.  So given all that, let’s make sure she is rushed in using the commode.  After all, the more time you don’t use, the easier it is for you, right Gabriela?

This is what I mean.  Mom gets on the commode, and you ask her if she’s done before she is even fully seated yet?  Naturally she is going to get confused, and stressed out.  More than that, it is tough enough to have to use a commode, instead of the regular toilet. There is such a thing as Dignity, but many Beacon Community Service workers are blindly ignorant of that word, and it’s meaning.

Elderly people get nervous, stress over the smallest of things, so why don’t we tell them they are bleeding from an open sore in their groin?  Hey, they can use the added rush of adrenalin, right?

You are told to be gentle, for that very reason, an open sore in the groin, so when you wash and dry, you force the clothes between her legs, instead of asking her to spread her legs apart a bit more.  I do that each and every time I have to do the job, and you know, I’ve never drawn blood, or tore her skin.  Did you catch that Rose?

Beacon Community Services :   Pay Me to train your many incompetent workers, it might save some poor old soul their Life.

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Assaulting Old People | Disposable People

  • Posted on January 1, 2012 at 10:38 am
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It is a New Year today, and Beacon Community Services is starting the New Year off with a Bang.

First they alter the morning schedule, to make the regular worker arrive a half hour later.  Course they don’t bother to let us know, so Mom was sitting on the edge of her bed, in preparation for the Worker.  Course her balance isn’t good, so actually she was leaning backwards, in a rather uncomfortable position.

As well, her sheets were pushed back, but not far enough, so they rested on the wet towel that we have under her, and in putting the pillows behind her, well they got wet from last night’s urine too.

THIS WAS TO BE MY SLEEP IN DAY

Guess an hour extra will do, though not really.  Meantime Mom is a bit nervous, and in checking to see when Yvette was to arrive, hey, the afternoon worker has now been changed.

NO CALL – NO NOTICE  from Beacon Community Services.

I mean honestly, it is blastered all over our account, to call when there is a change, of any kind, of any time frame.

I GUESS THE PEOPLE ON DUTY SIMPLY CANNOT READ ENGLISH

So today will be one of added stress for me, for Mom.  New person in the afternoon, which means here I go again, having to stand guard because the quality of workers is Piss Poor.   Most seem unable to grasp the basic concept that their primary duty is to keep the PATIENT SAFE, while doing their assigned tasks.

Privacy while one sits on the commode seems a foreign concept to these people.

As does understanding what the words SHAKY & UNSTEADY mean.

Truth is, Beacon Community Services is about making MONEY and the people they make it off of, are simply a COMMODITY that is DISPOSABLE.

Kill off one, there are lots more to replace them with, at a fee of $37 or more per hour, paid for by YOU & ME!

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Pity the People In Edna’s Care & Others

  • Posted on December 29, 2011 at 4:18 pm
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It is the holidays, so no I didn’t want to make changes now.  However, seems there is little choice in the matter, or else I’ll be burying Mom from some stupid fall accident.  Least that’s how it very likely would be, if people like Edna are given a free hand.

They tell me I am overbearing, over protective of Mom.   Geez, like when did that become bad?

Yes, I am watchful, and yet, only when new people are around, not regulars, who have shown that they can be trusted.  That is not the case with Edna.  Three times she had Mom stand up, when it should only be twice.  And those two times are hard enough, stressful enough for her, but worse, is that ALL THREE TIMES, Mom was shaky on her feet, and the so called PROFESSIONAL was not in control of her.

Had the cart slipped, or she leaned forward just an inch or two more, we would be still dealing with the Paramedics.

SO MUCH FOR PROFESSIONALISM.

What galls me too, is that she denies it. I saw it, I am not blind, and there is no way she could have seen it, being BEHIND MOM.  But she is the professional, as she kept telling me. In addition, she tells me that I need to take a break, that she’ll look after Mom, and says it not once, not twice, but at least THREE TIMES and IN FRONT OF MOM.

Right now, Mom is wondering if she is too much of a BURDEN FOR ME.

THANK YOU EDNA, I NEEDED THAT ADDED STRESS ON A NINETY FOUR YEAR OLD LADY.

I have called Beacon, to have Edna placed on my DO NOT SEND LIST.  Talked with Karen as the regular supervisor for Gordon Head / Oak Bay isn’t there, for whatever reason.  Holidays I suppose.   I was clear and to the point, this is a safety issue and Edna simply isn’t capable of insuring my Mother is kept safe, while in her care.

The Jury is still out on one more worker, for the afternoon schedule, and tomorrow will be D-Day for her.  I am sick and tired of doing the work, that they are here to do.  Honestly people, DO NOT GET INFIRMED OR OLD.

As long as companies like Beacon Community Services have any contract, to provide services to the Elderly, YOU ARE AT RISK.  It is about profits, about a total and complete lack of accountability, or of training.  She simply doesn’t know how to handle someone who can’t manage standing without assistance, and isn’t light on their feet.  Companies need to have TRAINED PERSONNEL to deal with the elderly, who are trained to KNOW WHAT TO SAY IN FRONT OF THEM.

My Advice to You ALL

 

Make as much money as you can, so you can afford PRIVATE IN HOME CARE when you are old, and unable to manage things for yourself, like bathing, or needing other assistance in the home.  IF you don’t make enough for that time of your life, you will be at the mercy of SUB STANDARD CARE, and that care will indeed shorten your lifespan.  Your quality of life will suffer, needlessly, all because these outfits are about PROFITS NOT PEOPLE.  The Government is uncaring, because it isn’t interested in SERVING PEOPLE BUT IN PADDING THEIR OWN POCKETS.

 

 

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She wants it that way, but

  • Posted on December 16, 2011 at 8:44 pm
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So today the Doctor dropped of a legal form, the Do Not Resuscitate form.

Yes I know it is what Mom wants, and yet, I don’t know about it.  I know that it means she dies in comfort, and won’t have ribs broken, or other discomforting issues, but this still is too much like signing a death warrant.

Mom is 94 years old, and yes, they say she could continue for years this way, though two weeks ago she did have a stroke. It now means she can’t walk, and standing is painful.  I hate seeing her in pain, and yet I don’t want to lose her.

This is perhaps the toughest thing I have had to do, until it comes.  Then that is going to be the hardest, but I still can’t sign it.

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Just how much can one person handle

  • Posted on October 23, 2011 at 6:36 pm
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Honestly, I wonder at times, just how much a person can handle.  They say God only gives us what we can handle, whether we know it or not, but I question that.  I question why should we even have to handle so much.

Mom is, well, Mom.  Here she is 94 and her body is slowing down a lot. Like she needs any added stress?

So what happens, our dog gets sick. We all think it is simply a pulled muscle or some form of arthritis in the leg, and that’s exactly what the Vet thought on Thursday too.  So off we go with some pills. Dog seems fine right up until after her follow up Saturday.

Then the shit hits the fan.   She begins to throw up, to not even have strength to get up and bark at people coming in the house, or leaving. Molly’s nickname was ‘spazz’ because of how she would really tear around, barking, even at the wind blowing.

On Saturday you would think it was a totally different dog.  And worse, she didn’t even want her food, which was sliced meat.  So off to the Vet this morning, and suddenly we ( David and I ) are shit kicked.

The Vet checks and while Molly has no temperature, she has become very pale, and enemic looking.  Quick blood test confirms that, and worse.  Suddenly we are told that Molly may not even survive till Monday morning.

She has some condition that is basically the body destroying itself.  In addition she has liver damage, and all we can do is spend thousands for diagnostics and treatment, with zero guarantee of it even working.  Course that assumes we had thousands, which we don’t.   But we owe her a chance, so first step, is to try pills, three kinds of them, and so far, they aren’t working.

Molly has thrown up both times, after being force fed the pills.

Now, on top of wondering if I wake up the morning, will Mom be alive, I know will wonder if Molly will be as well.   Sounds odd, like how can one compare a dog with a mother, and yet both are living beings, that mean the world to me.  Molly is a dog that captured our hearts, that has been a comfort to Mom when we go shopping, to be there when I am downstairs doing laundry, and so on.

For me, Molly is my confidant. One I talk to at night, hold close to help me beat back the fears of dealing with a 94 year old who is slipping slowly downwards.

And in one fell swoop, that could disappear in the blink of an eye, without any warning.

I don’t know, just how much more I can take. I belive in God, but now I wonder what kind of cruelty it is, to give us so much, to just suddenly up and take it away.  I wonder how I will tell Mom, that Molly is gone, if that should happen, and then I wonder, how will she cope with the loss herself?  Will it trigger something catastrophic in her, and break her own fragile will?

I am at my breaking point. It feels like no matter what I do, it will only end in death. I don’t get it, I mean Molly isn’t old, she’s just nearly five years old, and may not make that even.  WHY?

All I can do is sit and wait, pat her on the head, and keep from letting my anxiety boil over, and impact mom. All I can do is wait, for more pain, more grief, and for what?  What earthly purpose does all this serve?

Mom knows something is up, she can sense it.  What will tomorrow bring, and again, I ask  WHY?

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