Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Elderly parents

Care home not consistent with hygiene

28 replies

bounce89 · 12/11/2021 23:27

Not my parent but my Grandmother has recently had to go into a home for respite care. She is 100 +. I have found out that due to staffing levels she has only had one shower since entering the home over 3 weeks ago.
They are doing daily washes but she is a very proud women and this along with other things is causing a low mood.

I'm looking for must have items that can help the carers support her better with the little time that they do have.
Due to Covid we can't even see what her room is like so I feel like we're having to put a lot of trust in people we don't know to tell us what she needs but with the visiting times being so limited and so short it's difficult to form a relationship with any one enough to get a proper response.

OP posts:
2020isnotbehaving · 12/11/2021 23:33

Can you ask see copy care plan? Id want to know how much time this wash takes. If it’s quick wash with flannel face and bottom so 2min job or a proper bed bath every day. If she has time for bed bath she has time for shower if she can transfer to shower chair and be wheeled in. It doesn’t have take long get wet and soaped over. If she can’t be hoisted or sit up long enough then that’s a different matter.

Hairyfairy01 · 12/11/2021 23:47

Have you ever worked in care 2020?

OP I would send in some dry shampoo, body spray, perfume ,moisturiser, hand cream and a detangler hairbrush.

2020isnotbehaving · 12/11/2021 23:54

No but I am someone who receives care

2020isnotbehaving · 12/11/2021 23:55

So I do know how long a shower takes and no it doesn’t have to be an 45min job it can be 5min. Least that’s what my care plan says

2020isnotbehaving · 13/11/2021 00:01

It shouldn’t be standard that showers are asking the earth and oh well we don’t have time for that long as quick flick with flannel job done. I’d be asking about staffing ratios and care plans over sending perfume mask a smell body. I’d like to think of I was 90 someone would be asking those questions for me. But as I said if she can’t sit or transfer with help that’s medically reason why a shower would be unreasonable but other wise a shower once or twice a week certainly is not.

bounce89 · 13/11/2021 00:05

She needs two carers to assist her as she can't stand and needs a stand aid to hold her weight and due to Covid and the normal care home staffing issues I think this is why they're choosing to wash instead of shower as then one carer can get her ready and then the other just pops in and helps with transferring her into her chair.
Thanks @Hairyfairy01 I will pick those up for the next visit.
Do you have any recommendations for a decent cup/beaker that she could drink tea out of when in bed please?

OP posts:
bounce89 · 13/11/2021 00:13

@2020isnotbehaving
I'm not trying to mask the smell of her, I was looking for ways of trying to make it easier for everyone involved while we find a way to deal with the situation.
Long term it needs looking at as it's not only effecting her mental health it also increases the risk of infection.

We're just trying to be aware that with limited visiting and no real way to monitor how things are in the home we don't want to make demands or complaints that could end up causing problems with the staff that are looking after her as it's not us that would be dealing with the fallout.

OP posts:
2020isnotbehaving · 13/11/2021 00:18

I know you didn’t mean mask smell sorry it sounded like. Guess for me someone who gets care I’m more inclined to be on the no stand up and fight her corner rather than the oh well staffing issue etc though of course I do get the issue it’s difficult for everyone with staffing and covid and extra problems.

Like you say it’s not just shower it’s affecting her mood and then her sleep and how much she wants to eat and general health. It’s worth bringing up the effects on her. I know they can’t do showers every day if running on super low staff but on other hand if you don’t make point things will carry on as they are. Even if they can agree to shower once a week would be start.

Crisispoint21 · 13/11/2021 00:23

One shower in 3 weeks! no wonder she's feeling down

An alternative/addition to dry shampoo could be be rinse free shampoo caps, they do a better job than dry shampoo.

Winniemarysarah · 13/11/2021 00:25

@2020isnotbehaving

So I do know how long a shower takes and no it doesn’t have to be an 45min job it can be 5min. Least that’s what my care plan says
A shower will never take 5 minutes, especially when the care user requires 2 members of staff. We’re down to 2 members of staff per 23 residents in a very high dependency home. We’re meant to have 5 permanent staff, plus whatever agency staff we need that day/week, the care crisis is so bad right now that the multiple agency’s we source staff from has let us down every single day for weeks . We have bed bound patients that require 2 members of staff to perform basic hygiene tasks. Performing one of these tasks means leaving 22 high dependency care users unattended which is highly illegal and certainly not in the care plan, but what else can we do? You can complain online or to the care homes, we can’t pull staff out of thin air.
CovoidOfAllHumanity · 13/11/2021 00:28

They may think that is acceptable to her/ what she wants. People do vary and some people prefer just to have a strip wash if showering has got very difficult.

Ask to speak to the manager and have it put in her care plan that she gets at least a weekly bath or shower. That should be achievable I am sure.

Make sure she has a This Is Me document with her preferences documented in case she doesn't feel able to ask for herself.

HeddaGarbled · 13/11/2021 00:29

quick flick with flannel

That is an ignorant remark.

Veeveeoxox · 13/11/2021 00:30

Shower does not take 5 minutes if a person requires manual handling and a hoist it requires 2 people. I've had shifts in a care home where only two of us were on shift (the senior was always do med rounds Hmm they really don't take that long!)

Two of us were expected to wash 25 people we simply don't have the time to transfer someone to the shower as we need to get everyone in for breakfast. I felt awful and unable to care for people the way I wanted too I left the care agency after a couple of shifts at this place and got another job in a supported living it's shocking the standard of elderly care .

Winniemarysarah · 13/11/2021 00:30

To answer your question op, you need to arrange someone to go in and help her. Care homes are already in a huge crisis, and I’m sure most people have seen the news today that 57 thousand carers have been sacked overnight due to not being double jabbed. Vulnerable people are going to die

CovoidOfAllHumanity · 13/11/2021 00:32

The problem is that due to Covid regs I would doubt they would even let you go in to help but that would indeed be the most likely thing to get it done regularly. Shameful state of affairs really that a shower once a week isn't automatically part of basic care but I can easily believe that this is what it has come to.

2020isnotbehaving · 13/11/2021 00:33

The fact care home is seriously short of staff doesn’t change the issue it’s not personal attack on staff. They are standards or care and ratios that legal have to be taken. So if a home Is leaving 22 high need people alone just for someone have wash then someone some Where needs to do some basic checks and enforce rules.

If QCC do an inspection and half clients complain they never get shower it’s not
Going be oh well never mind. Things will not get better though if everyone thinks can’t rock the boat or say anything because no one wants work in care. I know there is no magic wand to situation but least documenting the affect lack of care and staff is a starting point or how can things get better ?

2020isnotbehaving · 13/11/2021 00:38

I do agree though it’s shocking that this country has such low priority for care and money is not spend on improving wages in sector. If we can suddenly pay lorry drivers £50k we can pay carers £15 an hour just have to wait for level service to reach much lower bottom than it is now Confused

Thanks to carers on this thread hope you don’t feel it’s about you personally.

Winniemarysarah · 13/11/2021 00:39

@Veeveeoxox

Shower does not take 5 minutes if a person requires manual handling and a hoist it requires 2 people. I've had shifts in a care home where only two of us were on shift (the senior was always do med rounds Hmm they really don't take that long!)

Two of us were expected to wash 25 people we simply don't have the time to transfer someone to the shower as we need to get everyone in for breakfast. I felt awful and unable to care for people the way I wanted too I left the care agency after a couple of shifts at this place and got another job in a supported living it's shocking the standard of elderly care .

This is my situation. I’m only meant to be on part time half day shifts around my kids school hours, I’m now doing full time 12 hour shifts even though I don’t earn an extra penny after childcare just because there’s no one else. I’m one of the few carers that ensures every single resident gets a strip wash and every man gets a shave every morning. Residents shouldn’t be grateful to get a basic wash a day, we’re not in the position to do more than that though. And thanks to 57 thousand care staff getting sacked last night thanks to boris and his new law, it’s going to get even worse
CoffeeRunner · 13/11/2021 00:40

I'm not sure viewing the care plan will help TBH. I've seen many a quick flannel recorded as a bed bath in my time. Care homes vary so much but so many are so incredibly short staffed & have extreme pressure on the Carers to get 40 residents up, washed, dressed & down to breakfast by 9am. When they start at 7.30am.

I'm not saying that's OK. Purely telling you the reality of some homes.

Sure a shower for a relatively compliant resident can be quick. But again, depending on the home, many residents will take much longer to shower. I have also seen 2 carers being left on a 20 resident unit. Now if their residents require two Carers to assist with showering, who is watching the other 19 residents while they're in the bathroom?

It's shit. This is one of the reasons I left my last care home job. It was impossible to do the very best for everyone with no staff 😣.

Veeveeoxox · 13/11/2021 00:42

@2020isnotbehaving

The fact care home is seriously short of staff doesn’t change the issue it’s not personal attack on staff. They are standards or care and ratios that legal have to be taken. So if a home Is leaving 22 high need people alone just for someone have wash then someone some Where needs to do some basic checks and enforce rules.

If QCC do an inspection and half clients complain they never get shower it’s not
Going be oh well never mind. Things will not get better though if everyone thinks can’t rock the boat or say anything because no one wants work in care. I know there is no magic wand to situation but least documenting the affect lack of care and staff is a starting point or how can things get better ?

You complain you get labelled difficult , I phoned the agency and said I can't work in these conditions the agency said "aww you're going to leave these vulnerable people without someone to care for them ". So then obviously I stayed they then stop offering you work so you can't feed yourself hence most people don't complain they simply leave.
As the CQC investigation and safeguarding is a blame game
starrynight21 · 13/11/2021 00:47

I agree with pp, a shower for someone who needs 2 staff is a long job. A "normal" shower for a fairly mobile person will take at least 20 minutes from when you get them out of bed until when they are all done and sitting in a chair. A person who needs 2 staff for everything, well that will require 40 minutes of staff time . In most care homes that is an impossibility because you're on a skeleton staff all the time.

A good wash in bed only takes 1 staff member for 10 minutes, and then another staff comes in at the end to complete the dressing / getting out of bed.

I know it seems awful, and it's never ideal, but it's reality in the care home sector.

Winniemarysarah · 13/11/2021 00:48

@2020isnotbehaving

The fact care home is seriously short of staff doesn’t change the issue it’s not personal attack on staff. They are standards or care and ratios that legal have to be taken. So if a home Is leaving 22 high need people alone just for someone have wash then someone some Where needs to do some basic checks and enforce rules.

If QCC do an inspection and half clients complain they never get shower it’s not
Going be oh well never mind. Things will not get better though if everyone thinks can’t rock the boat or say anything because no one wants work in care. I know there is no magic wand to situation but least documenting the affect lack of care and staff is a starting point or how can things get better ?

This care home in particular has been under investigation since 2019 and things have only got worse since then, which they’re aware of. It was in our local papers last Friday and this Monday about 2 recent, serious incidents. The QCC are around 3 months behind on following up right now, so I suspect they’ll start investigating sometime next year.
Maverickess · 13/11/2021 12:23

IME, complaining probably will achieve results for getting her showered more often, however (and I don't say this to make you feel guilty but because it's reality) it will mean someone else not getting showered, or other people not getting supervision etc they need. The management will simply detail the carers to shower more often and 'just manage'. That's my experience of this kind of situation.

Even without covid, it's unlikely they'd be happy with you helping out by giving her a shower, not necessarily because the care staff have got anything to hide, but because of the risks associated with using the stand aid and equipment and needing to be trained and covered by insurance etc when delivering care, plus the exposure to other residents.

WRT things that can help, I second sending in plenty of shower gel, a sponge or two (I find they're softer and they hold more water when giving someone a bed bath than a flannel) plenty of underwear, and dry shampoo/the caps - care homes usually have hairdressers that go in but some don't at the moment and that's something else that then falls to care staff, I used to love spending an afternoon setting a couple of the ladies hair and painting nails, putting handcreams on - unfortunately needing to give basic care such as toileting and feeding has to be the priority and so the nicer things fall by the wayside with staff shortages.
The home should have beakers with lids and handles for residents that find it hard to use a cup or mug, but if you Google 'beaker cup for elderly ' there's a lot of different ones available to buy - put her name on anything you buy in permanent marker so it doesn't wash off, it's impossible to keep track of every single persons belongings by sight without names and unfortunately some residents can be magpies.

Unfortunately if there's not enough staff, then there's not enough staff and those working have to balance the risks of all the residents in their care, they can't defy the laws of physics and be in two places at once. The CQC regs state that there have to be enough staff to meet the needs of the amount of residents they have, in number and qualifications. Unfortunately the CQC are slow and clunky, and seem very reluctant to use their powers when standards fall short, and even they can't pull more staff out of thin air. Staff are reluctant to speak up because there are no real safeguards against retribution against them when they do, and if they do, very little if nothing changes anyway because the regulating bodies are about as much use as a chocolate fire guard in most cases.
An already short staffed sector just got made worse (whoever you choose to blame for that) and will continue to get worse as the pressure the ones who stayed increases and they are blamed for the failures and they leave too because it wasn't really worth the money paid before, it's certainly not now, and you can work in an environment where it doesn't affect people's lives and well being for the same or more money, being in that situation takes a real mental toll on the carers too.
I don't know what the answer is, obviously speaking up is a start - but is anyone actually listening to the whole story? I can see a headline about something like this along the lines of "90 year old gets a shower once in 3 weeks!" And lots of exclamations around how bad that is, and the CQC saying "We're investigating" and the providers saying "Lessons have been learned and heads have rolled!" But will there actually be more staff available to provide the care? Or will it continue the way it has with the staff on the floor getting a bollocking?
I know which one I've experienced and I left because despite the investigation and me and others telling the truth - nothing changed.

LaBellina · 13/11/2021 12:29

Your poor grandmother. That must be horrible. Can you give her a shower with the assistance of your DM? Would she and the care home be ok with that ?

bounce89 · 13/11/2021 12:47

@LaBellina
Sadly we're not even allowed in her room due to Covid and the rules surrounding visiting so only allowed very short visits.

I'm not interested in getting people into trouble as I worked in a care home previously providing care for people with dementia, I'm aware of how difficult it is to stretch yourself to do everything that needs doing and it just not working.

It was hard then and I imagine it's much harder now! I just wondered if there was something that I couldn't think of that would help the carers support her better so that she was still able to feel 'fresh' even when they can't shower her.

They have a hair dresser on site and they do pamper sessions which do help keep her looking lovely however that doesn't stop the initial issue of preventing infection and of keeping her dignity.

She just deserves so much more than these places can provide at the moment as do all people that are there but there doesn't seem to be an alternative option.

OP posts: