Social care carers

[Crazydoglady1980]

I just wanted to gain some other people’s views on an issue we are having and if my expectations are too high.
I am a carer for my Mum, she is still relatively young, 62, and she has been having care through adult social care for a number of years. She has two calls a day, one in the morning and one around tea time.
We have recently been informed that social care have agreed that the current agency has a four hour window to complete these care calls. They try to stick to a regular time, 8am and 7pm but can and will turn up anytime within the set 4 hour window of both call times.
This is having a significant impact on Mum, she has COPD and takes medication in the morning to help reduce her breathlessness when she showers, this only has an effect for a short period of time so has often worn off by the time the carers come. She is also having to cancel her social activities because of the care call times and not being ready to go as she is till waiting for the carers to come.
We have raised these issues with the care company and have basically been told tough. Is this right and there is nothing we can do?

We were in a similar position with mum and we found the same issue. She didn't want to get up early and was happy to stay in bed until 9/10 a.m. but especially in the last month or so before she went into hospital we found they were coming later and later - sometimes it was nearly noon by the time they arrived. She was wanting me to bring her breakfast in bed while she waited for them which really negated the benefit of having them.

The evening calls were more reliable and they would come between 8.45 and 9.15. We did have one arrive at around 7 o'clock one night and we had just started our dinner so we told her there was nothing for her to do and I had to put her to bed that night.

Half an hour either way is understandable, even an hour if something unexpected has happened in a previous call but to be anytime between 6 am and 10 am is really hard.

Thank you for replying it is really hard, it then takes up so much of our day and is leaving her more and more isolated. I understand that social care is on its knees but I just wish there was something I could do to change it for Mum

The rotas that the carers get assigned are the root cause of a lot of this. oftentimes it's down to the whims of the manager assigning work packages so there'll be a call on one road that leaves a huge gap, whilst another gives you 5 minutes to do a 25 minute drive to the next client. Which pushes everything off kilter

@lalgarth are you a social worker? Would timings work better if the carers were allowed to work out their own visits schedules with the families?

Sorry @lalgart

@lalgarh !!

Hi @Opp ha! Just found this. No I'm not a social worker but had experience of carers when they came to Look after my parents