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I used the Blink cameras when my husband was bedridden in our living room, so I could check on him from my bedroom without getting out of bed, and also when I had to be out and about for any reason, so I could check on him to make sure he was ok. They now make them with 2 way talk as well.
I sure wish I had cameras. Would have made it easier when I went to the police station to report suspected theft.
I gave the officer all the info I had, he did a quick check and returned to my house less than an hour later with a STACK of papers showing stolen items that she sold at a pawn shop.
This did not include food, toilet paper and other goods she stole nor property damage!
Sad fact is a background check will show convictions only.
Install cameras.
cameras are legal without permission. Audio needs consent. Cameras can not be placed in areas where a person would expect privacy. So no bathroom. If this is a live in there private room can not have a camera. But a camera can be placed in the bedroom of the person the caregiver is caring for.
Get a safe place all private, important papers should be in a safe. When in doubt, put it in the safe
Items the caregiver sold in a pawn shop?
How can anyone not have sense enough to make sure valuable things are secured and locked up?
Tell me, when you leave your house to go somewhere, do you lock the door? Maybe close and lock the windows? Or leave a light or two on as well?
You take these basic security measures to prevent someone coming into your home and taking your stuff.
Do people leave a stack of hundred dollar bills on the back of the toilet in their house? Or a diamond bracelet on the kitchen table and hope no one rips them off?
No, they do not. A person's employment is not a guarantee of their personal morality. Being an in-home caregiver is a job. It's not a calling or any honor or privilege.
It's a job and I do it for the paycheck. People like myself who have a good work ethic add a level of professionalism and do well at it. Others don't. Anytime you bring a stranger into an elderly person's home to care for them, someone has check in on the situation regularly to prevent thieving and poor work practices.
Lock up valuables (jewelry, checkbooks, credit cards, ATM, cards).
Lock up personal things that you don't want a stranger looking at.
This is how you guard against thieving and snooping.
As for unacceptable behavior and poor attitudes. If the hired caregiver isn't a good fit with the person they're hired to take care of, it's the responsibility of the agency they work for to replace them with a different one. This is why the pay to an agency caregiver is so lowly. The agency who employs them normally takes half or more of that's collected for the service. The agency is management. Their job is supervising, making sure the worker is properly doing their job, and making sure the client has coverage if the regular caregiver can't be there.
If you're worried about bad attitudes and behavior, hire a private-pay caregiver not employed by an agency. Bad attitudes and behavior are pretty rare among well-paid caregivers who work for themselves and don't have an agency exploiting their labor and wages.
You still have to keep an eye on anyone you hire because they're a stranger. After a while when they've proved themselves, it can be more relaxed.
The problem we hear a lot is aides stealing. Food, paper products. One aide brought her children. Make sure you take an inventory. One poster did have things under lock and key but what she was leaving out seemed to be used up awfully fast. Making themselves something to eat is OK but trying to feed their family from the clients kitchen is not.
I just saw your comment about my post.
I feel like you are putting the blame on me for the theft that occurred.
I did have most things locked in a safe. I had a few things in my bathroom so OK, I will take responsibility for that.
But the toilet paper, all the food and the damage (damage was clogged toilet because she flushed wipes that were clearly marked do not flush, she also flushed tampons, put a hole in my wall when she tripped over the vacuum cleaner hose and pushed the handle of my Husbands wheel chair through the wall) that she did most certainly I could not have prevented. How would she have fed my Husband if I locked the refrigerator and freezer? Who locks up toilet paper?
And why she would have taken a lip balm? (Odd thing about that I purchases several in a blister pack and wrote the flavor on the bottom, when the officer asked her to dump her purse one was in her purse)
My only caution about what happened to me is that you can not rely just on back ground checks.
How do you know? You do not. With all this crime reform going on. Here in MI, as long as you do not kill someone, molest a child or do something with a life in prison sentence, you are automatically expunged after X years and the person never committed a crime, unless it is federal. You know fresh start and all.
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