As soon as my Mom became bedridden, we brought in extra Personal Daily Assistants (PDAs). In the course of two weeks, we have had more than half of the caregivers assigned removed from the case due to other issues having nothing to do with my Mom’s care. It’s frustrating. I have called the agency several times to express my concern with all these new faces to a woman who has dementia.
Not only is my Mom trying to cope with fact that she can’t get out of bed and walk around the community, but we have additional new faces coming in from hospice. This is a lot of change for even me to handle. My Mom does not manage change well and each caregiver has a bit of a learning curve in working to find the right way to work with my Mom.
Thankfully, my brother came to town this past weekend. He’s a Human Resources executive, so I consider the timing a blessing. I ask him to meet with the caregivers and determine which ones we should keep. I also call in a new agency. We initially used the one care agency recommended by my Mom’s community. Since I was concerned about all this change, I called in a new agency to fill in for the weekend care. Before I can call to cancel this coming weekend with the old agency, they call to tell me the caregiver from last weekend can’t return. Really … what part of “no more change” got lost between my mouth and your ears?
This is hard enough and now we are faced with finding the right agency/caregivers to best help my Mom. I’m glad I opted for Plan B. It’s difficult to realize that even the best-intention-ed individuals and agencies fall short of what our loved ones deserve. Frustrated.
I completely understand your frustration. Glad your brother was able to step in and offer some assistance. I found there was so much turnover in the already too-small caregiver pool in my parents’ area. It definitely made arranging for care more challenging.
We went through the same thing with my mom, but that was almost 15 years ago! It’s sad to see that the situation has not improved. I am glad you have support from your brother. I hope and pray that you find the right person. Your mom has a good advocate in you!