A winning smile, a bubbly personality are all well and good, if you are selling cosmetics, or clothing, or even a car. It works if you are a waitress, or desk clerk at a Hotel, and it can HELP if you are a home support worker, but that is all it can do.
Old people, are unique. They have lived a bit, and yeah, they can be ornery, cranky even as they get older, but honestly that is from fear of the unknown. No matter how strong your faith in GOD is, the closer you are to those final days, the harder it is to believe. So you wind up taking it out on those around you, it is human nature.
Yes Mom can be a handful, can make life exasperating even, and difficult, but you know what, she is entitled to. She is after all 94 and to be honest, I don’t see her making it to 95. She is tired, of the pain, of the difficulties in just doing simple tasks like getting out of bed, of standing up to go to the bathroom.
She isn’t feeble, or stupid. She knows it is hard on those around her, but she keeps fighting, fearing when her last bit of independence goes, when she becomes bed ridden. Even I, find myself thinking about that, and I am only 56 years old. I see how it impacts me, and I know David won’t have the patience, or the strength to cope with what I am dealing with. So yes, it weighs on a person’s mind a lot, so how must it feel to be 94, and in such a condition?
Sure, there are other old people who are in better shape, and most in worse shape, but the last thing they need, is unwarranted stress added to their already complicated life. They have enough pain, enough tzuris ( Yiddish for troubles ) that additional burdens are just, well cruel.
Perhaps I have a different interpretation of what Home Support is about. Maybe that is why I am so disgusted with Beacon Community Services, and the people who run it, along with VIHA ( Vancouver Island Health Authority ) who enable outfits like Beacon Community Services to not just exist, but actually thrive.
In about ten minutes from now, I have to take Mom to the bedroom, not for a change, but to redo what the worker that was here at 9am did, so that Mom is free from pain. So that she can sit and read her book, in comfort, and be clean too.
- VIHA needs to stop giving contracts to private businesses, without having a proper check and balance system in place. They need to insure that those who are sent into people’s homes, are qualified in proper procedures on how to get an elderly patient up out of bed, and into a bathroom for a wash and dressing.
- VIHA needs to take charge, and to deny contracts, or revoke contracts, from firms who place profits above quality of service.
IF you want to be in Home Care, then you need to hire staff that is qualified to do the task assigned. That means actually knowing what you are supposed to do for a Patient, BEFORE YOU ARRIVE AT THEIR DOOR.
I do this 24/7 and perhaps I am too picky, as has been mentioned to me from BCS, but hey, guess what, this is my Mother. She is 94 and is ENTITLED to be given some consideration. She is ENTITLED to be cared for, with respect, and with competent care.
Home Support, to me, means that you come in, to HELP, to bolster the primary caregiver by giving them a chance to rest, to be free from doing their job, even if it is for a short FIFTY MINUTES. That means you come PREPARED to do the tasks listed in the Care Plan.
You DO NOT use the excuse that it is your first visit, so no, you haven’t read the care plan. HELL, if it is a first time, that SHOULD BE THE FIRST THING YOU DO WHEN ASSIGNED A NEW PATIENT.
As a business, providing such care, it is YOUR OBLIGATION to hire qualified personnel, and to follow up and INSURE that they are doing the assigned tasks, and doing them PROPERLY.
OLD PEOPLE, cranky or ornery or whatever, DESERVES IT.
too bad VIHA and Christy Clark, along with Isabel McKenzie and Beacon Community Services, disagree with me on that. Their one and only concern, is how much money they can pocket on the backs of OLD PEOPLE.
