AIBU to complain about my mother's council carers not providing proper care?

[TheTwinklyLemur]

AIBU? My mother has Alzheimer's, lives in her own home and has carers from the Council who are supposed to get her up in the morning, get her ready for the day and give her breakfast then come to give her dinner and tea and help her get ready for bed. Her neighbour, who helps her with shopping, has told me that they are not turning up or are leaving after ten minutes when they are supposed to be there for half an hour. She has even had to help her to bed. I know they are busy, but this doesn't seem right. Sometimes her neighbour gives her her meals because the carers haven't turned up and I have done it when the carers haven't turned up[. The neighbour is elderly herself and has her own problems to deal with. Mu Mum pays about £1, 500 per month for this service.

Last week she went to sae the chiropodist for the first time in years, they were shocked and also asked when she last had her hair washed. Now she used Ito have a lovely carer who washed her hair and gave her a shower, but she was stopped from seeing her because she "spent too much time with her". When her care programme wes first arranged, they were supposed to give her longer in the morning so as to help her shower,wash her hair, get dressed, etc. However, this seems to have gone by the by.

The whole reason that I asked for carers was because I didn't feel comfortable doing her personal stuff like showering.. I know there are things that cares can't do, like cutting toenails (thus the problem above), but I was expecting them to wash her and other personal stuff like dressing and undressing. If they are only going to put her meals in the microwave and make a cup of tea I wonder what she is paying form I could do that.

Get a ring doorbell and also ask to see the log for the month, detailing showering, hair washing, time spent with mum as comments have been made in regard to her care.

The careers will be under pressure to get to the next job, can you check what they have been asked to do.

Check the care plan includes personal care. Talk to the registered manager of the care agency. Don’t worry that they are ‘council funded’ as they are still being paid.
if it doesn’t improve and personal care is on the care plan then raise it as neglect.
If they say personal care is not part of the agreed package then explain it needs to be and get a review.
Speak to the contracts monitoring team at the local council

Carers leaving early is a big problem for us too - and I suspect for many dementia care clients.

My Mum has Alzheimers and we have a care plan detailing medicines and personal care. All broken down into washing, dressing, meals etc. The care agency has an app with a checklist the carers tick off. I can see this information on a version of tbe app for relatives.

However they still leave ten or twenty minutes early. They just type in the app that all care is completed and no more care is required. Or the start times they enter on the app are 10 minutes before their actual arrival time as recorded on our doorbell camera.

Or they say to Mum, 'Is there anything else you need? Mum says no out of politeness. Also because of her dementia. She doesm't understand this is a request to leave early, yet she will still be paying for the full visit. This is despite one of the checklist items being to sit and chat to Mum and another being a request to stay for the full duration of the call.

I get very fed up about this, it seems like exploitation of people with dementia. It feels like theft really. In a workplace, someone only working two thirds of their paid time would be pulled up on this. Even worse, the carers have sometimes said that they need to rush off because their next client has full awareness and writes their times down.

We've raised this with the care agency and the local council (we too pay privately but council coordinates). Things might improve for about 48 hours but it very quickly slides back.

I hope you find a solution OP. Your mother's carers not turning up at all/completely missing calls could be due to the person before them having a fall etc. But even our agency would phone me to explain, or call another carer in to cover.

I would do it myself and save the £1500 a month

Call the social work team who put it in for her and they can get the call logs and review it and if they’re not doing what they should they’ll follow up with their care quality team.

It's difficult isn't it OP

My grandmother had carers coming in but things didn't always go as planned, eg the carer who was there to cook her a meal would ask what she wanted and she would say, "Oh a sandwich" and the carer couldn't really do much about it.

When the council were putting a new kitchen in for her she went in to a care home for 2 weeks, there she started to put weight on because the question was, "Now would you like the chicken curry or the beef pie?"

Can you get a nanny cam?

Absolutely feedback if essential tasks are getting missed. Sadly it’s pretty much par for the course. I second the idea of the doorbell and their logs. In terms of arrival time that’s always going to be a time range and not exact because if someone earlier on the schedule has needed unexpected extra time then everything is thrown off, but they should still give the time your mum needs.
also they are most likely arranged by the council but from a private agency.

haven't you noticed her hair not being clean?

in my experience carers need to see you there and think there’s a risk of you stopping by. Even if you don’t want to do the jobs yourself, stop by, get a ring doorbell and some internal cameras and call the agency every time something slips

Maybe the OP has a job or other family commitments.

Potentially not practical depending on OPs other commitments. I know from experience with both, now deceased, parents, it is never just this easy.

i meant to also say if you can’t do the washing employee a private agency to come in each morning for an hour and do the rest yourself to save money.

So you’d be available 4x a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year? You’d willingly clean up a parent who had soiled themselves, or shower a reluctant parent? The carers are being paid minimum wage - less of there’s 2 of them. £1500 a month is an absolute bargain.

Unfortunately, in my experience the calls are all about being quick and everything is hurry, hurry and not always about the needs of the client. Agree with PP about the way questions are asked too. Much quicker if client says no to food!

@Soontobe60 I’m afraid yes I do have to do this because the carers wasn’t doing anything for their money.

Are they council carers or just the private firm the council uses ? Councils go for the cheapest and you have to make a real fuss , my dads got changed because the first firm were useless .

We had this with my elderly mil and fil but he was refusing showers etc - and they can’t make them have a shower etc. the carers only do the bare minimum and I think they ask him if he wants them to do stuff knowing he will say no.

She's paying for service she's not receiving. I have to say, there never seems to be much care involved with so called care services.

Get your proof together and lodge a complaint. If nothing else, you want a large refund for the service your Mum has paid for but not received.

Would she be better in sheltered accommodation?

I don't have dementia and had a council caring team for three months due to an illness (capacity not impacted). It was horrific, never again.

Exactly as you describe, but also no hygiene / food safety, no helping me shower or wash, would spend five minutes out for an hour (morning visit) and often not even turn up.

I called my GP who raised it as a safeguarding concern and things slightly improved but it still wasn't brilliant.

Thankfully neighbours and friends were ace but it was such a horrible experience

have a word with the company
ask for a weekly shower

tell the company she needs a hot meal
check her fridge and put the days of the week on the meal for the carers

i was an evening carer and i was shocked when i read notes of a lady whose family asked her to have a weekly bath,
the carers asked
the client said no
and this went on until the family changed carers

Its what. 1500 divided by 30.5 (assuming 1 hour a day and taking into account months days fluctuate) equalling £49.10
So likely 2 workers on minimum wages or there abouts taking say £13 (for half hour work that is not half hour but 10-20) leaving £36.10 for "admin".

I wouldn't call that a bargain if stuff is not completed. I would call it something nearer to taking money from the vulnerable

@TheTwinklyLemur could you consider a private carer? A shame you can't arrange the one who "took too much time" privately.

Can you arrange something with the neighbour so she can let you know easily every time the carers don't turn up, then contact the council every time to ask for an explanation and a refund for her? Or check it via.a Ring doorbell?

I am a carer and this is common across the board. Ultimately it comes down to laziness and a lack of empathy tbh. We are stretched for time where we’re given 5 mins or sometimes no travel time and they cram as many visits in as possible. First visit starts at 7am and finishes 7.30am then you are expected to start your next visit at 7.35am or even 7.30am (no travel time at all) when it’s a 15 min drive without traffic let alone with. Obviously you turn up “late”. I personally always make the time up that I am late and always spend the time im supposed to but that’s not the case with all carers. We also have clients with dementia where carers go in and don’t bother to get them up, washed or dressed ect because they can’t be bothered so then the lunch visit carers will come and only if it’s someone who does their job well will actually do the lunch call plus give them a shower on top. The morning carer would normally get extra time to do this as well, but just couldn’t be bothered so leaves it to someone with less time but who actually has a heart. We also don’t get paid by the hour either, it’s per visit. Some days I work 7am - 10pm and because the visits are so crammed with no or very little travel time (5mins), I end up working into my break. If we have to call an ambulance for someone and have to wait an extra hour or 2 with a client, we have to keep working on. There’s no one to jump in and take our visits, we will just have to keep working and turning up 1 or 2 hours plus late. We also don’t get paid for extra time spent in emergencies even when we’re told we have to stay until family or an ambulance attends. The pay is absolutely rubbish. If I work 4pm -10pm shift I’m never leaving by 10pm it’s always 10.30pm- 11pm sometimes and I get paid for 4 hours and 45 minutes work because as I said we are paid per visit not by the hour. I always go above and beyond and am always reporting carers but nothing changes. Companies favour the shit carers especially if they are the ones who are always covering work.