The dilemma

James suffers from dementia; he is a busy little man who is always on the go, in fact he never sits down.
Just recently he had a fall and I called an ambulance to have him checked out. Having come back from hospital I was surprised to find that he had no medication, and when I asked he told me they had not given him any. He was obviously had a lot of pain in his back and could not even get out of the chair.
As the week passed by he was getting worse, so the son started giving him Paracetamol to ease the pain and after a week we called the doctor out again, asking why he had not been prescribed any drugs. It turned out that James had torn up the prescription because he wasn't going to poison his body.
So now we have some stronger pain killers and he is on the mend.


Or is he?

 Whilst he was not on medication he stayed put in his chair, resting; but now he is on medication he feels better and is on the move again. Because of his dementia he does not understand that the medication is improving his injury, and he still needs to rest. The pain goes away and he forgets he has any injury all together.

So I go round one day and find him vacuuming the floor and enter the next day to find him lying on the settee in agony

Part of me thinks
he may have got better quicker without the tablets

Scare mongering over flying visits

http://www.channel4.com/news/care-visit-15-minutes-nhs-elderly-disabled

 

Perhaps the Care Industry does need looking at but articles like the one above give us all a bad name. The suggestion that 15 minute flying visits are forcing people to choose between a toilet break or a drink is farcical and nothing more than scare mongering.

My fifteen minute call would go something like this...

'Good morning Ethel. Do you need to go to the toilet?'
'Yes please'
'Ok let me just put the kettle on and I will help you.

Lets face it if they have waited for you to arrive to use the toilet, another minute is not going to make any difference (there are obvious exceptions). I then help Ethel to the toilet or onto a bed pan.
 I am not going to stand over the poor woman whilst she does her business so guess what; I go and make a cup of tea whilst I wait for her to finish. So even if it takes the lady fifteen minutes to go to the toilet she will still have a cup of tea by her side before I leave.


Yes there are calls where fifteen minutes is not enough but if a Carer feels that there is not enough time to do a call they can ask for a review from social services.

fifteen minutes of care

There is a lot of talk in the news today about fifteen minute care



As a care worker I do not see anything wrong with 15 minute calls; occasionally that is all that is required. I have one woman who often tells me to 'Sod off' once I have made a cup of tea and a sandwich. Other times I only pop in to check they are ok and have taken tablets; Yes I stay for a chat but sometimes they do not want to talk; any longer is an intrusion.

The problem arises when, through a profit driven industry, 6 minutes constitutes a 15 minute call. I'll leave you to work out the rest.

I have to say that I always try to give what is required regardless of time and my company has never pulled me up for spending too much time at a call. So if a lady tells me to 'Sod off after 6 minutes I will. If someone else needs a bit more attention one day through illness or loneliness, I stay longer than my fifteen minutes of allotted time.

Just for the record they are not all fifteen minute call, I spend an hour and half with one lady every day

Sometimes common sense has to prevail