Friday 25 August 2006

Heavy Thoughts

My care agency suck.  I am giving serious thought to requesting copies of all records they hold on me and will almost definitely be pursuing other options to provide my care.  This entry is passworded for the simple reason that at least one of my carers (that I know of) reads my blog.

My various complaints:

I made a verbal complaint some time ago about a carer which ended in the agreement she would not be sent again.  She was sent again and when I again rang them and pointed out this they had no record of my complaint.  Both times I spoke to them about this carer I was told "That's not like [carer]" and how she was a popular carer.

They are supposed to write to me to inform me when trainee carers will be coming to shadow.  I have never received a letter, always just had it sprung on me.

My contract with them states that they may vary the time of my visit by 15 mins without letting me know (traffic time, basically) and if my carer will be later than that they will call me.  In two years with the agency (almost)?  They've done it about twice.

I have told them that I rarely get home before 4.30 and asked that my carers are scheduled to come no earlier than 4.45 - because this means the earliest they can come is 4.30.  I usually finish at lunchtime now but haven't told them that - my care visit for this Wednesday is scheduled for 4.30 which means it'll probably be around 4.15.  I won't be home till 4 at the earliest.  Stress.

I made a written complaint about another carer (written only because they forgot about my verbal one) - I know they received it because Sara delivered it by hand.  No response.  I had a monitoring visit and raised that point to be told that a voicemail had been left on my mobile for me to call them.  Everytime a voicemail has been left for me to call them I have and it has never once been about that complaint.

I asked for an additional visit yesterday (emergency visit) so that someone could fetch my drugs for me as I was too poorly to go myself.  I was told it was very very diffciult for them to do as they were short staffed and it would be easier and better if I could wait till my usual visit.  I was basically guilted into agreeing to this.  Yet I have had to have late visits several times lately because they have gone to other clients for emergency visits.  And they state that medication visits are a priority to them.  No apology either.

They have a page of notes on me they give to my carers (kind of an About Emma sheet).  I have read it and do not agree with some of what it says.  It is also out of date and doesn't include some information I consider important and which would save me a lot of hassle. I also wrote a rough schedule of what I wanted doing when and asked that be included.  It hasn't been.   I've decided that I want to write my own version with no patronising statements - it currently starts with "Emma is a delightful girl who enjoys a chat" - and only relevant information.

So I mentioned it to two of my carers and they said that I am not supposed to have seen my client information sheet.  One of them told me there was a reason but she couldn't remember the term - it was like confidentiality.  Obviously that doesn't apply to info about me when it comes to me!  The other said that basically it's because some people's info sheets say nasty stuff about them.

There is this fill in carer, I find her argumentative and I also know that she told one of the coordinators that she "never met a more ungrateful, untidy little madam in her life" referring to me.  She was scheduled to come to me next week.  I cancelled the visit.

Another carer is basically out of her mind and shared all of this really personal and quite worrying stuff with me, asking my advice.  This is not someone I know well and basically stemmed around the idea that she met a girl on the internet, fell in love with her and was then told the girl had been kidnapped, gangraped, held hostage and murdered.  Did I believe it was true, what should she do???  My main carer wrote a report and made the coordinators aware of this and my disgust at her behaviour - particularly as I was having a BBQ and soph was here at the time - but again I  heard nothing.

My actual carers are great and a lot of these I could ignore but it's too much all at once.  Particularly the ignoring of written complaints and the not having a right to see my records.  I think that is outrageous and I think I need to do something but I dont know what!

1 comment:

sair said...

I am not surprised at the stuff you've written, which is worrying in itself.

I am surprised though that they did not respond IN WRITING to your written complaint. Because of this, I don't see the point in writing again, but maybe contacting the care commission or maybe drc if it falls within their remit?

what would you advise a cab client?

I would also schedule an emergency meeting with your direct payment guy and social worker (maybe to coincide? or at least have a representative there when sw comes) and try and sort out a satisfactory way of you going the cleaner route as I know that is one thing you have already considered.

great big hugs emma, i know how stressful this all is...
Sarah

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails