Monday 27 January 2014

Paying peanuts!

David's time in the nursing home has opened my eyes in lots of directions.

In Essex I went on the course for volunteers to become lay accessors of people's homes. We accompanied fully trained people and I often worked with the same man. We worked out a plan. Some matrons talked to us in their office. This could take a morning and did not need two of us. After about an hour I would ask to use the loo. Someone would take me and afterwards I would "get lost"

It gave me time on my own to explore, to talk to the staff as well as the patients....I got a lot of information that way. It was not all good. One of the carers ended up in prison as a result of what we found.

Mostly though it was routine stuff, size of rooms, number of people sharing facilities...

The staff of these homes varied from gentle and caring to rough and impatient. There was a common sentence to cover staff problems.

"If you pay peanuts you get monkeys"

Yesterday I arrived early to see David and found my husbands room apparently empty, the bed made and the chairs looking out to sea. Momentary panic hit me and then I heard a sound. It was a gentle voice reassuring my other half.

He was in the bathroom unable to move....a young girl was helping him. She talked as she did it in gentle loving tones, encouraging him all the while. He was gasping for breath with the effort of trying to get his limbs in the right place. Neither knew I was there and I was reluctant to open the door on what was a kind, intimate manoeuvre . She got him moving and I revealed my presence, not wanting to startle them.

I now know the old saying is not true.

If you pay peanuts you can get angels!

 

1 comment:

UKViewer said...

That is reassuring for you and for us, who've been thinking of you both for weeks now. It seems that David is in kind, caring hands, which is lovely to contemplate.

I know from my own ministry over the last five years or so, where we visited Care homes regularly to visit, to take HC that the staff make the lives of the residents better. We had four places to minister too and each one was different from sheltered housing to Dementia care. They were uniform in their caring approach and support for the people. They were very supportive of the Church coming in often as many of the residents were members of the village families in our Benefice and therefore, also parishioners.

The care industry gets a bad name from the very few who don't care enough, but they are thankfully, few and the majority are doing great work, caring for our older, vulnerable generations.

[*] and {{{Hugs}}} continue.