Leaving community care as can't take anymore- AIBU

[Whatagoodplacetobe]

I've worked in community care for around a year but I've given my notice in.
When I first started I lacked assertiveness and boundaries and they took full advantage with regard to hours and rotas. Luckily nipped that in the bud and I say no a lot now.

But I think for my mental health I'm leaving, can't help feeling guilty though like I'm letting people down.
Half the people I looked after this time last year are now dead and I think I'm struggling with the idea of finding people dead in their house. Hasn't happened to me yet but has to most of my colleagues. It's also hard as you care for them every day and build a relationship and then they're gone.

The second thing is that I can't take the state of many of the houses anymore. Not blaming the clients at all, many of them are physically unable to clean their properties.
I've reported various houses to my company many times, one lady was removed and put into a care home but nothing has happened to the others.
Some are utterly filthy, sleeping on mattresses with no sheets, fly/spider/cockroach/slug infested. Animal faeces all over the floor.
Human waste on the floor, no proper flooring, just bare floorboards, windows boarded up.
And so on. So cluttered it's very difficult to walk around, can't find any clean clothes. Sadly we aren't allocated the time to carry out deep cleans.
As I've said i keep reporting, but I go into a lot of these houses retching. They're like the house of horrors.
I feel horrible but can't do it anymore. Has anyone else ever quit for these reasons? Feel guilty but have to think of myself too

Some houses are lovely, usually the ones where family are heavily involved

I find it absolutely shocking that elderly people seem to be forgotten, in this day and age.

Care providers are often the only contact they have and can only provide immediate personal care.

I'd love to see a small increase in taxes to see a large army of Health Visitors who work at both ends of a person's life.
Carers should be able to access HV services in order to alert them to situations that the elderly find themselves in.

No personal experience but a carer who used to visit MIL would tell her some awful stories, there was 1 gentleman in particular who she hated visiting she said she'd often sit in her car and cry when she left his house.
I dont blame you for resigning, its a tough tough job with little recognition and reward.

It can be depressing definitely. I'll try not to feel guilty, they will still have other carers looking after them.
Hygiene was also an issue. One man had toenails that looked about 20cm long, bright yellow. We weren't allowed to cut them, but i reported it

Don’t think you’re being unreasonable at all. I get feeling guilty about the clients etc but it’s not your responsibility. I did both childcare and domiciliary care. I now make more money and have lovely flexible hours working in a retail environment. It’s not stressful or emotionally challenging. I leave at my arranged time every day and there’s no toxicity. It’s great.

That’s not me devaluing the wonderful caring professions. They can be incredibly rewarding. But why should I do a difficult and upsetting job for little money when I could do an easy job for the same little money, or even more? You need to prioritise your own life. This sounds harsh but at the end of the day if you dropped dead your work would maybe send your family a condolences card. They wouldn’t make themselves miserable for you so don’t make yourself miserable for work.

Also just the ridiculous expectations. Oh yes you’ll be seeing Mrs Johnson from 11-11.30, she needs getting up, a bath, dressed, and breakfast. Then Ms Thompson from 11.30-12 for all the same. How will you do all that in 30 minutes including travel between the two homes which is a 10 minute drive and find parking and manage to provide a decent level of care plus only work your contracted hours? Errmmm that’s not really our problem.

Exactly, ridiculous. Also asked to cover extra work on weekends 9 times out of 10. Started saying no to most.
Yesterday i had 10 'breakfast' visits to do. Then they phoned me up to say 'can you just fit in a couple more?'

You've got nothing to feel guilty for. On the plus side, there's a huge need for more home helps, if you fancy that?