Mom suffers from what the Doctor calls ” Parkinsonism “. It is similar to Parkinsons Disease but not quite the same. Bottom line is, Mom gets the shakes, tremors, that can cause falling. It is scary to see it occur.
An interesting note, is that stress and/or worry, seems to make the shaking occur more often, more intense even. It isn’t just that her leg can’t move, despite the brain wanting it to. It is where her whole body literally shakes, as if having an earthquake within.
Now this last week, we have had substitutes Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Monday & Thursday was the regular worker.
In this instance, the substitutes were simply a part of life. The regular workers are ill. Can’t fault Beacon Community Services for this one, though Wednesday’s nightmare I can.
Monday & Thursday, with the regular worker here, the shaking was minimal. Oh, her leg gave her issues, about not wanting to move when commanded, but the actual body shaking was less. In fact, only happened once in those two days.
Tuesday wasn’t great, and Wednesday was super bad. The shaking was frequent, and extensive. Now to be fair, Tuesdays wasn’t as bad as Wednesday, and I would wager that Wednesday’s was more due to the time being altered, without any notice.
Both of those days, the worker was actually fairly good. Wednesday’s the better of the two, and I’d say the better of all four who have shown up this week. ( Substitutes that is. )
Todays & Yesterday’s were okay but the shaking was much more than Tuesday. Partially I’d say it is due to the worry about the worker, and the aftermath of just okay care. I’d go so far as to say that it didn’t ease her stress, because there were way too many questions, way too many requests for instructions. And that is despite me giving them the instructions.
Makes me wonder, why they bother to ask me, if they are going to just go and ask Mom. It is like they don’t think I know what is the routine, or what is needed?
Anjoli was the best of the four, with Zhian right behind. Why? They spent the time with Mom talking, not questioning her. They did the required job, effeciently & without fussing Mom. They took my instructions, and did it, without pestering Mom, which allowed her to not worry. I mean she is aware of her memory slipping, and is fighting it. Asking more questions, that have been answered, only makes her worry more, which in turn brings up the shaking.
When a worker is sick, or on holidays, you need to send a substitute. However, they need to be trained for that. It isn’t the same when you are a regular worker. As a regular you KNOW the routine ( or at least should ) but as a sub, well, how can you know?
There should be seperate training that takes that into account. Selected people should be assigned as just that, trained better for that. It would make life so much easier for all concerned. The Patient would be handled properly, and the life of the caregiver would be easier too.
IF you are going to provide home support care for people, the least you can do is have properly trained personnel. You need to have schedulers who can understand the need to provide Patients with regular workers, not a parade of new faces to help them.
At the same time, you need to know that regular workers will have time off, either due to vacations, personal issues, or illness. You need to have a squad of trained personnel, who specialize in dealing with Patients, they may never see again. These substitutes need to be able to pick up instructions from the primary giver, or have a proper plan available to read and study.
Beacon Community Services fails on these key crieria. They do not have Current Updated Care Plans for their Patients. Nor do the majority of workers being sent as substitutes bother to even read or check them. This does not benefit anyone, including the worker.
It needs changing.