Social care is broken.

[Atmywitsend29]

It's 0440am where I am and I just need to get this off my chest, the healthcare system is on its knees. And I'm not talking NHS, I'm talking social care.
I'm head of care in a private care home. We are permanently short staffed, my ward is small because it's dementia and EMI. But I frequently work alone, or have one agency hca. In the past week we've had 3 permanent staff members go off sick, and the agency staff keep testing positive when they turn up to, so have to be sent home.
The home have taken in two new residents for my ward, knowing it's me and an agency hca at best overnight, and a head of care/senior and an HCA in the day. We've been saying for weeks it's too much.
In the past few days we've had 6 unwitnessed falls, luckily all resulting in nil or very minor injury.
I sat in my office and cried about an hour ago because I feel like I'm drowning.
The company can't seem to hire anyone, or retain anyone, and they can't help people testing positive for covid.
They don't care about us staff however, every time we say it's too much and we need more staff or less patients we just get ignored. I'm not the only one who feels like this.
I'm waiting for a start date for a new job but I honestly I don't know how I'm going to cope for another few weeks here and I can't afford to not come because my DH is doing agency work since losing his job just before Xmas.

I don't even know what I want from this post, I just needed to get it off my chest. I've got another 4 hours of shift left. And back again tonight.

I'm waiting for a start date for a new job That's the one positive note in all this.

I'm so sorry, OP. My mother left her job managing a nursing home (pre-COVIDand not in the UK) because she kept asking for more staff and they wouldn't hire anyone with experience and qualifications because they didn't want to pay for them. It seems to be late-stage capitalism, before we return to feudalism.

I'm so sorry. You're right. We're in a social care crisis and we desperately need to support people like you to stay and recruit and retain staff. It's been an undervalued role for far too long and I don't think all the focus on health helps at all. We need a properly functioning and funded system. I hope you get through the next few weeks and your employer starts to listen

Know the feeling only 3 night staff, but we are all in different shifts. I would hate to see the agency bill, this has been going on for more than 6 months. Xmas Eve night there were 2 of us for 24 dementia residents. 5 people needed turning ever 4 hours, the rest are all falls risk and have pressure mats. None of the day staff had thought of finding someone to cover. No one even came in early to help, I was knackered when I got home.

The agency staff that keep testing positive, are they actually unwell?

Can you make a formal complaint? And write to the founders or board members of the company?

It doesn't matter if they're unwell, we are in the early stages of attempting to prevent a full covid outbreak at the home so all personnel are required to have a negative lateral flow at the start of shift, if it's positive you can't come in.

Vodkaredbullgirl that's awful, but I know exactly what you mean!

The only thing anyone (higher up) seems to care about is bums on beds. They know we can't manage the residents we have, but they've taken in two more. The clinical lead nurse came across from another ward to assist me with a fall in the night and said to me she doesn't know how I cope...I don't think we are coping.

I've just reread my reply to you BleuJay and I'm sorry if that sounds a little rude, I don't mean to be.
Our policy is that you can be here if you test negative on an LFT when you turn up for shift, anyone who tests positive has to leave immediately. And ofcs then there's no cover so we run even more short-handed.

I hear you, DH used to manage a care home. He was never away from the place and often did 24-36 hour shifts because of staff shortages. Even when he was at home he was permanently on call and developed awful anxiety around the phone ringing because it was always work with more staffing problems (which no one would help out with).

He left and now does agency work, he earns the same amount of money but isn’t there all the time and his mental health has improved massively.

I hope you get the respite you need in this new job.

I sympathise fully OP and thank god people like you exist to care for people when they need it. I don’t think anyone realises how bad or expensive social care is until they are at the point of using the system. The latest Alzheimer’s charity ad on TV pretty much sums up eloquently the issue. There is a lack of funding or Swift access to funding. The forms are pages long and comprehensible to only the person who devised them. I find it frustrating my parents have to pay extortionate amounts for private care provided by an agency of ever-changing staff in their own home simply so they can access the state funded portion they are entitled to. The fact is they’d be better serviced (and would cost less, result in less emergency care etc) with private live-in carers who would also earn more but these are not supported by the system. The system is designed to support a small number of firms with either PE backing or close links to local councils whose workers are then not even paid the living wage. What we need is a large number of Government front line politicians to actually experience the current system for the elderly or infirm before change will happen.

This is how I ended up doing agency work. I get paid better for looking after one client overnight than I did being responsible for 20+ residents and cleaning, doing laundry and sometimes food prep. Oh and starting baths/showers at 5am. Care work can be absolutely brutal for staff and clients with little or no appreciation or support from management. Its just another way to make money.
I'm glad you've found another job and I hope it makes you happy. There needs to be much more support for care staff x

I've done health & social care for 12 years and it's never been this bad, it's been bad ofcs, and there's been days we've been so short staffed residents can't have a wash beyond hands and face and a pad change, but this is worse.
This is just plainly unsafe. And I know it's not just the home I work in, all my friends in all different homes say the same, it's the same everywhere. As evidenced by your replies!!

I don't even have the patience for their dementia or their behaviours because I literally don't have time to slow down and care? That's not why we work in care.

I'll be honest, my new job is in a completely different industry/sector, and once I leave social care I won't ever come back.

Netaporter you're absolutely right, nothing will change unless the gov experience it for themselves. But I don't even hold out much hope even then, after seeing the way Hancock and Johnson straight up lied about how they "protected" care homes during the first wave of the pandemic. They seized our PPE shipments and redirected them to the NHS. And then pressured us to take untested or known positive elderly patients form hospital to ease the strain on the NHS

Sadly the opposition under JC and now Kier have blown any chance of wading into this debate by their constant opportunistic politics wanging on about Boris/Boris’ flat/Boris having a glass of wine in his back garden etc. whilst the twitterati might give a shit about that, the general public don’t beyond whether or not rules were actually broken and were any lies told…. A concerted push beyond ‘I’ve had a letter from Jenny from Carlisle’ at PMQ’s would be a start. The Government have made claims about sorting the care system so I’ve no idea why Labour aren’t actually more vociferous about holding the Govt to account over actually doing just that.

And best of luck to you @Atmywitsend29 in your new job.

How sad that good people who want to work in care like you are being forced out because of stress and understaffing . We have 2 children with complex needs and are entitled to a bit of support but getting anyone to deliver it reliably is impossible at present. We have 2 excellent agencies on board but covid, sickness and the lure of better wages in hospitality etc is decimating them.
We need to value the role and respect those who work in the field. And reward them accordingly.
The Ed Balls series on the care crisis shown a few weeks ago was excellent and really hammered home the issues.

It's a disaster. I'm sorry OP. If it is unsafe you should whistleblow to your local authority. I know it may feel like little point to this at the moment but at least you will have esacalted it.

I'm also in social care and totally agree - it's on its knees and has been for a while now , but Covid has just made everything worse.

I'm in Scotland where the pay is poor, you need to register with SSSC, keep up to date with all training, work long and demanding hours, get little gratitude or thanks, and could get paid more working in a local factory.

We are expected to look after society's most vulnerable people but how can you do that properly without the correct resources? And when it all goes wrong , your scrutinised , investigated and the finger of blame is very much pointed at you.

I totally understand why people don't hang about in social care any longer.

I see the issues from the hospital side and it is staggering people don’t get more angry. The week before Christmas on a particular day across the whole trust (4 large hospitals) there were 300 patients medically fit to go home. Only 100 went. The other 200 are waiting on carers/nursing homes/ social referrals. It’s insane. Community care is on its knees.

People should be more angry because it will affect you. For example surgery is cancelled because there are no beds for after the op- it’s got someone waiting a nursing home in it. You call an ambulance for a loved one having a heart attack and wait an hour instead of 5 minutes because the ambulance is stuck outside A&E. They can’t get rid of the patient into a&e because a&e can’t send anyone to the ward checking gridlock.

The wages are bad, brexit and the mandatory jabs affected recruitment and it’s thankless! I genuinely don’t know how people continue to work as a home carer or in a poorly staffed home, hats off to you. And I hope your new job is glorious.

You know the poem.....
^For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail^

Social care is the nail. People get old and need care. It's expensive and often unclear what care and how long is needed. We spend a vast amount to ensure they don't get that care on the state. Let's just accept 12 weeks social are provided free for all...get hospitals working again. This means paying social care staff and staffing homes well. It's abysmal at the moment

Consequently bed blocking

Consequently A&E overwhelmed and unable to discharge to wards

Consequently ambulances queuing unable to off load

Consequently sick people unable to get assistance and some will die.

I'm in social care too.

All I can say really is I'm tired, so, so tired. I want to care, to look after people properly. I can't, I am providing basic care (if that) to far more people with far more complex needs than I should be, it's not safe and I am exhausted trying to make it safe and failing.
I have bruises, nip marks, scratches and bite marks and I'll be lucky to have any money left at the end of the month even though I'm working my arse off because it's a pittance.

They knew what the mandatory vaccination would cost, and absolutely zero has gone into tackling that, likes of us on this thread expected to pick up the slack because we care and feel guilty that people are going without care, and that's what they're banking on.

Sounds like we've lost another one in OP too, and if someone doesn't get their head out of their arse and start making some real changes many more will follow.

My friend has carers coming in four times a day and her care has deteriorated over the past few months to the point it is unsafe. Two of the last three mornings her carer has not turned up, one of those days she was left in bed till 2.30pm. She is an insulin dependent diabetic who needs to eat and take time critical medications, not to mention the indignity of being left like that.

She is someone who has the ability to advocate for herself and also has a lot of support from family and friends who kick up a stink on her behalf so I dread to think how bad it could be for someone even more vulnerable than her.

I have been working with the same company 17 years and it has never been this bad.

As someone who has experienced social care for loved ones I just want you all to know you are appreciated if not by people who hold the purse strings. I think you're amazing

You can report anonymously to CQC.

It's is scary, people talk about a crisis coming in adult social care but it is already here!

And yet during your shift you're on MN?