A couple or so months back, my elderly mother had a fall in the room of the Care Home she currently resides in. She was taken to hospital the next day to be checked out for injuries as she was in pain, and when she returned to the Home a day after that, her bed was moved from the side of the wall to the middle of the room in order to allow staff to stand either side of her bed, presumably to more easily assist her if she needed to sit up.
One night while I was visiting, two staff members came into the room and tried to lower the bed on one side (perhaps to take my mother to the toilet), but clearly didn't know what they were doing and the bed suddenly collapsed on one side with an almighty clang. My mother was flung from the middle of the mattress and into one set of the wooden 'barriers' around the bed, screaming "Stop! Stop! You're killing me, you're killing me!" and moaning and groaning in pain.
I was then asked to step out of the room for a moment, which I did, thinking they were going to do something that required privacy, but, on reflection, I later wondered if it was to prevent me from seeing further instances of their incompetence. (One of them had only started two or three days before.) I've lost count of how many instances I've witnessed of ineptitude by staff, many of whom seem poorly trained and completely uninterested in their job, which is far from a ringing endorsement for the standard of 'care' that Meadowbrook provides.
(One example of poor training - or no training to be exact - is when I asked a staff member to replace the batteries in my mother's hearing aids. She replied she didn't know where the batteries were kept, and that she didn't know how to fit them anyway. Her response to my enquiry of how long she'd worked there was "Four years". Staggering!)
So, Crivvies, you've likely read my previous posts about this awful excuse for a Care Home*. What would you do if you found yourselves in such a situation?
*And in case you haven't, allow me to remind you via the following links... Link 1
15 comments:
Get the SAS to storm the place and rescue your mum ASAP.
Actually, I could do something that, CJ, but it wouldn't be the SAS (Saturday And Sunday soldiers), it'd be a posse from Priesthill who don't mess around. However, that would likely distress my mother and I'd need to arrange somewhere to look after her first as she couldn't handle the stairs in my house.
Oh, and I'd be arrested.
Jeez you know folk from Priesthill , your one tuff mutha!
Surely everybody in Glasgow knows folk from Priesthill, McS? We're all tuff muthas up here. Apart from you, of course, ya big sissie.
I am a gentile person so I am more than happy to be labeled a big "sissie" kid lol .
I think you mean 'gentle', McS, not 'gentile'. Why bring religion into it? (Chortle!)
Kid, they should be shutdown. Every tale you disclose makes me fear for your Mothers wellfare, I'm surprised she has lasted to 104 in that place? 'Truly shocking!'
I'd be surprised if she lasts to 105, AAW. She often says she wishes she was dead and that she's lived too long. And she often asks me if I've come to take her home, yet the Care Home and the Social Worker dismiss this as being common to residents. They never seem to listen to what families (never mind the residents) want. Social Work prefer to put sticking plasters over the cracks because if the Home were closed down, it would mean they'd have to find somewhere else for the residents. They're in cahoots with one another to a large degree.
As you may be aware we've had issues with Linda's dad, and before that her mum in hospital. Dirty wards/rooms, toilets not cleaned, lack of information from nurses and doctors on what care they were introducing and cases when Linda's dad fell with no nurse on the ward ( breaking a hip and then badly hitting his head,) BUT nothing on the scale you and your wee mum are experiencing. In fact when we mentioned the toilet was dirty the ward introduced a new cleaning plan . When they refused to show us her dad's record ( which they are obliged to do) we informed them we would write a complaint ( we still don't know what the issue is with her dad who is ill) we didn't even get to the end of the ward before the head nurse ran after us to apologise and show us his med records. So at least some acknowledgment of error from them - you just seem to be getting dumb insolence from this place. He is back in hospital and this ward are so professional and caring such a difference .
Force of habit, we live in the West of Scotland after all .😀
It's a real shame about Linda's dad and I hope things get better soon, McS. Thankfully, my mother is unaware of when things aren't right, I suspect because whatever medication she's on dulls her senses even more. As an example, there's a large mark on the wall where staff have banged her armchair into when moving it, and my mother has never mentioned it before. However, when she came out of hospital, she was more lucid than usual and pointed at the mark, saying it was a disgrace and banged on about it for a few minutes. (She likes everything to be clean and tidy under normal circumstances.)
As regards the Home, I'm sure (or I hope) there are more conscientious staff, but some have taken against me because I'm not shy about bringing things to their attention and complaining if things aren't right. The Home obviously doesn't want me there with my camera, snapping pics of dirty floors, dirty tables, dirty toilet seats, etc., hence the 'ban'. I think it speaks volumes as to how much the owners 'care' about the residents when they start denying them visits from relatives as an act of retribution and in pursuit of an agenda to conceal their many failings. As I said before - scaum and bastards!
Looking after a elderly ill parent is hard enough without what they are doing to you. So your simply not allowed to visit, that's evil .
In fairness, I should say that, for a while, the new manageress tried to make improvements in my mother's care by issuing instructions to her staff about where such improvements should be made. However, she's either not a very effective communicator or her staff just don't listen to her. I'd been told that staff had been instructed to close my mother's room door if they ever see it open, but simply put - they don't, either because they can't be bothered, have decided they're not going to, or are simply unobservant @rseholes. I've arrived to see the door open and staff walking by it without closing it. Maddening!
They won't see it that way, McS. To them, they're simply protecting the 'brand'. Evil is the word, and unfortunately, Social Work don't seem much better.
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