I was a home carer -ask me anything

[IWasACarer]

That's so outrageous! Do you think your managers did this just to make more money?

Did you ever find you had to rush care calls just to keep up?

Also - did you do work commissioned by social services? If so did the private payers get a better standard of care than the local authority clients?

I think with private payers it is harder to increase the time needed.

The overwhelming majority of work was via social services. We only ever had a handful of clients who paid privately. Maybe less than ten in all the time I was there.

Care calls were always rushed, it was just how it was.

I hate to jump in on somebody else's AMA but..well, I'm going to.
While its true that a LOT of home care companies are awful, and expect you to run around like a blue arsed fly, rushing calls and picking up extra calls at the drop of a hat, they are not all like that.
The company I work for now pays above minimum wage (£10 p/h), we get a tax free fuel allowance in with our pay every month (usually around the £100 mark), and we are never expected to rush calls or not given enough time to get between calls without rushing. The staff in the office know the clients well, they go out and do calls themselves to ensure that when carers call the office for more information they can tell us whatever we need to know. They let us know all the time that we are appreciated, and in return for them supporting us, we work hard for them and they dont have the high staff turnover other care companies have.
If you are considering finding employment with a home care company I would suggest checking the CQC website and reading the inspection reports for the company you're considering working for. Same if you're looking into care for a relative or loved one. Do your research! There are good companies out there.

Obviously, it will depend where you live and on the company and so on.

Where I live, there are a lot of people needing care with beds in hospitals being blocked for this reason. Also not enough carers. And minimum wage and depressing work conditions aren’t good,

I’ve worked with women who do a seventy hour week. Obviously no one could actually work seventy hours and stay sane so the answer is that they don’t actually do seventy.

I appreciate that all companies are different and I know that there are some awful care companies out there. I worked for one for a short time, before realising how horrendous they were and leaving.

The care industry, and in turn care workers, seem to have developed this bad reputation as a whole and it sucks. I'm a good carer, and I work for a good company, yet I still get people giving me dirty looks when I'm out and about in my uniform. I'm definitely not imagining it. I know some of it comes from the fact that the only time you ever hear about care in the media is the bad news. And I know that some people think that all carers are just people who cant get work doing anything else so they end up working in care.

Many people dont have first hand experience of care providers, so the only way they can form an opinion on them is through the media, and things like this! And now all of the people who are reading this thread will start to form their opinion of the care industry off the back of what you're saying your experience was. I just want people to know that there absolutely are good care companies out there, we aren't all the same.

I know of several care companies, none of whom pay any more than minimum wage and all of whom treat their staff like crap. Not exactly on purpose. If someone needs their carer that isn’t like working in a chip shop. No one needs chips but people can’t be left hungry cold and wet which is what happens if carers don’t turn up.

But when I was working, this was a typical day.

Up at 6. I don’t wash or shower myself. Brush teeth, chuck tunic and a pair of leggings on. Pick up other carer as she doesn’t drive. Drive to our first call. This should last 45 minutes. This man lives in one room downstairs. We use the hoist to get him up and sat on the commode. I fill a washing up bowl with warm soapy water and give him a wash while he’s sat on it and dress his top half, then I wash his bum and legs, trousers and shoes on, hoist him back on the bed, he is rolled from side to side as we pull his trousers up, then hoist again onto his chair.

While I’ve been washing him the other carer has been getting his breakfast, making the bed, and recording what we did in the book. It all takes about 35 minutes. Then we drive to our next call. We have six of these in total, we are done by half ten. We have an hour ‘break’ and then at half eleven start going to the same people again and it’s same old, hoist up onto the toilet , back onto chair, change pads where applicable, prepare lunch, wash up from breakfast. We are done by half one. Then start again at 3. Done by half five. Then start the bed rounds at 7, done by 11.

It’s a bit shit really.

100% agree that its shit. The company I worked for previously was like that, not enough time to complete calls & lots of rushing around. Also having to pick up the none drivers and ferry them about.

The company I'm with now never leaves you short of time, we have no 15 minute calls - the shortest is 30 mins and all of the morning/bedtime calls I can think of are 45 mins-an hour. You always have enough time. Lunch and tea calls are usually half an hour as its meds/food/pad check if required. They also only employ drivers, we all drive around independently, meeting up at the calls that require 2 carers. And like I said, we're paid well above minimum wage.

The care industry is shocking, my Mum's entire career has been in care, eventually managing homes and delivering training but she left the industry a few years ago due to the amount of bad practice she was encountering knowing there was little she could do. But in amongst the shit companies with managers and owners who only care about the money they can make and not about their service users or staff, are some good companies. I promise you!

Another question! Was the training you received adequate? I have seen ads saying there are vacancies for carers and that "full training will be given". It seems like a lot to learn! Did you learn on the job or did the company pay for you to study somewhere?

It’s just two or three days of learning to use hoists and lifting and handling, mainly. Plus so,e safeguarding.

I’ve also worked for a good home care company with minimum half hour calls. I met some lovely people. One of the things I didn’t like was having to go into smoky homes and coming out stinking.