home care and snow

Replies

By coffee

Re: home care and snow
Tue 3 Feb 2009 15:36

They should penelise those who don't wont to come to work cause of the snow its disgusting and when you read thatover 300 services users did not have any one go to them when the weather is bad shocking
Ihope your mom ok and not to upset by the ordeal?
look after your self coffeex

By BlueBelle

Re: home care and snow
Tue 3 Feb 2009 15:51

For once I have something good to say about carers.

Mum's new agency had staff shortages yesterday because staff couldn't get in but thanks to the dedication of those who did make it - and walked the snowy/icy streets between calls as there was NO local transport - they managed to not only do all mum's visits on time but also added an extra visit at lunchtime as the Day Centre was closed.

As far as I'm aware they contacted every service user and while a couple of people said they could manage without certain visits they covered everybody else.

I know it would have been chaos with the last agency and mum would have been lucky if anybody had turned up at all yesterday - let alone get two carers there at the same time.

New agency only started up in October and is still very small which is fine by me ...... so far so good

Hope things get back to normal for your mum now Darren

By wolfman

Re: home care and snow
Tue 3 Feb 2009 18:18

BlueBelle - what a lovely care agency your Mum has! Maybe a letter to the local newspaper about this would be great and would maybe help the agency with new clients (though I appreciate you would like to keep it small!)

By daz136

Re: home care and snow
Tue 3 Feb 2009 21:28

Hi all, to add we did have a very good care agency for over 2 years then our council thinks it can save money by cutting 28 agencys down to only 5 and gaveing some of the best one's the boot even our mp is looking it to this mess now and i am now looking at "in control" for mums care.

and mum is a bit happyer tonight after her ordeal i just hope that (care uk's) care staff go back to work as the snow has now gone darren

By Funkyfur

Re: home care and snow
Wed 4 Feb 2009 03:04

Isn't it ironic? My poor Mummy passed away 6 weeks ago and this morning our regular carer (who had been on hols since 6th Dec) turned up!! She didn't know!!

Yet I informed the agency on the same day as well as Social Services. We've had no carers since 21st Dec so what do they think we've been doing?!* The girl @ the agency even left voicemail (which I found 3 hrs later) to let us know the carer was running late! I could not believe it!

Needless to say I rang the agency and Social Services asking them how this could have happened. But by that time of course I was already quite upset

Funky

By madmel

Re: home care and snow
Wed 4 Feb 2009 12:15

Darren
This reminds me of back in 2003 when we had a bad snowfall.My mum had a carer 3x a day.The carer made the morning call then it snowed so late afternoon she phoned to say she couldn,t come back.
I then had to walk 3 miles there and back in deep snow with my toddler to make mum,s dinner and give her medication.I thought next morning when everything was moving again carer would return-no not even a phone call,luckily my 16 year old had moved in with mum 2 days before so he got herbreakfast but mum refused to take medication from himso i had another 6 miles to walk.That was really what made my mind up to move in and take over her care myself.
Funky
How upsetting for you,it,s unforgiveable of the care agency.
The pct angered and upst me with their thoughtlessness when they phoned up to try and arrange for collection of mum,s bed on the day of the funeral.
How are you coping?I know it can be 3 steps forward then 2 back,7 months later i am still having days as bad as at the start.Thinking of you
mel

By Ian0162

Re: home care and snow
Thu 5 Feb 2009 21:29

As a former employee of the Met. Office and a former nurse I can perhaps see both sides of the debate. Perhaps our expectations of what both local and national authorities can achieve are sometimes unrealistic. Are we prepared to pay extra taxes to keep the roads clear for an event that occurs only very occasionally. In addition can we expect support workers on the minimum wage and who may also have to pay their own travel expenses to arrive on time. Unfortunately global warming just makes local weather more dynamic not necessarily warmer.
I'm not sure when the next Ice Age is due.

By Ian0162

Re: home care and snow
Thu 5 Feb 2009 21:44

As a former employee of the Met. Office and a former nurse I can perhaps see both sides of the debate. Perhaps our expectations of what both local and national authorities can achieve are sometimes unrealistic. Are we prepared to pay extra taxes to keep the roads clear for an event that occurs only very occasionally. In addition can we expect support workers on the minimum wage and who may also have to pay their own travel expenses to arrive on time. Unfortunately global warming just makes local weather more dynamic not necessarily warmer. I'm not sure when the next Ice Age is due.

By EL

Re: home care and snow
Thu 5 Feb 2009 21:49

I just spoke to my sister in wolverhampton who as some of you may know is a carer, she has still gone to work, and she walked she is the only person some of the people see so she knows how much trouble they would be in if she didn't turn up, she couldn't live with herself, she said you should all write a letter of complaint to your mp

By Funkyfur

Re: home care and snow
Thu 5 Feb 2009 23:37

Ian0162 - Your quote "In addition can we expect support workers on the minimum wage and who may also have to pay their own travel expenses to arrive on time."

Well yes I think we can. I do not know if you are only referring to bad weather or any weather but just because people are on the minimum wage does that mean they don't have to bother? I am sure our carer was not on the minimum wage! She never turned up on time when it was good weather and sometimes did not turn up at all!!