By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington. Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services. APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid. We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour. APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment. You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints. Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or
[email protected] to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights. APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.I agree that: A.I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information"). B.APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink. C.APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site. D.If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records. E.This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year. F.You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
*If I am consenting on behalf of someone else, I have the proper authorization to do so. By clicking Get My Results, you agree to our
Privacy Policy. You also consent to receive calls and texts, which may be autodialed, from us and our customer communities. Your consent is not a condition to using our service. Please visit our
Terms of Use. for information about our privacy practices.
The job, I absolutely love. In two and a bit years I have never been bored, never not wanted to go to work that day, never even longed for the working day to end. It's the world's best and most useful job. Seriously.
The way I and my co-workers are treated, now. Alas that is a different question - and as far as I can tell from meeting private sector caregivers in our area, our public sector organisation is *good* by comparison. People are leaving social care because, the politicians and media say, "they can earn more stacking shelves in the supermarket." Tosh. Utter rubbish.
It is true that the money is a joke, if not an insult. But nobody worth his or her salt was doing this job for the money anyway, and that isn't why they're leaving.
It's because the employers - agencies, social care providers, whoever - tender for contracts competitively, which means they propose a low cost. To stay in business, they then have to meet their key performance indicators within that low cost; and their biggest expense by far is workers' time. So the time allocated to client visits is restricted, the time allowed for travel between clients is always slightly undercut, and the tasks and routines required in each visit - don't fit. It's that simple.
So the basics, such as washing your hands, donning new PPE, introducing yourself, checking the support plan, giving the client time to prepare, encouraging the client to do as much as possible with your assistance, tidying up after yourself, recording and reporting concerns, establishing trust, listening to people - these are all still on the list of requirements (along with driving carefully, staying hydrated, taking allocated breaks, doing your online training). But nobody can actually do them. There isn't time. It isn't an excuse, there *really* isn't time. If you take the time, as I stubbornly do, you get given a performance improvement plan and ripped a new one.
When there are then complaints, as well there might be, and I've lost count of how many I've nipped in the bud by apologising on behalf of others, who gets the blame? Yup. The caregivers.
I partnered a 22 year old girl on a 2:1 round last week. She is working her behind off. She is bright and efficient, kind, dedicated. Thanks largely to her we made good time on a round which was not technically feasible at all. She broke speed limits wherever possible in the 120 mile round trip. She observed nothing (I could almost hear her grinding her teeth when I documented early stage pressure areas on a body map). It isn't for me to correct or instruct her so I tried to hold my tongue, but when she was about to hand medications to a client we'd just changed I could stand it no longer and told her she must change her gloves. "I did!" she exclaimed, and I don't doubt that she did; only, of course, what she should have done is wash and dry her hands in between. Well, now. Two or three minutes is a long time in a 30 minute bed call.
Earlier today I suggested to a different co-worker, who's been doing this job for 20 or more years, that the reason some clients' families don't leave adequate supplies of items such as laundry detergent, toilet paper, bath towels where we can find them is that they think we'll waste them or steal them. She stared at me. "Do they really think that badly of us?" she said. I told her about the pillowcase incident on this very forum: two new pretty pillowcases went missing, and the OP's very first thought, her automatic assumption, was that the caregivers had stolen them; and she clung to that belief even after one of the items had turned up safe and well among the clean laundry.
Caring is very emotionally exhausting, but it isn't the clients who break your heart.