What do we think to our new Carers????

If only given a few words to answer that question it would be 'not a lot'.

We've had nearly 4 weeks with our new Carers, who everyone told us were very good and would guarantee a more tailored service ie be here when we wanted them, partly due to the fact that we're paying towards it now. We were looking forward to that. The Intake Team ie the Council Carers although were often quite late turning up and didn't always do what I thought they should, were on the whole a happy bunch and really did seem to care about the people they visited, there was often lots of laughing in Marks room when they were here.

So far I've only seen one of our current Carers over the age of 12 (or so it seems) and seen very few with a smile on their face or indeed heard any giggling or joking at all in Marks room. They are in general a miserable lot. I saw a bit of his washing process one day where one of them was waving a cloth over the tops of his legs and had no intention of washing the backs of them, when I asked Mark about it he admitted he had to ASK them to wash the backs. Not once have they offered to wash his hair even though it is stated as part of the deal.

Our Social Worker asked us what our feedback on the service was so we told her as far as we're concerned it's rubbish. The day after that I fell out with them big time. Marks call is 9 - 9.15am every day. If they're over 15 minutes late we're supposed to call the office. So I did (this was the 2nd day in a row they were late), speaking to their boss amid the sound of screaming kids, barking dogs, shouting man, I asked where they were and if they were indeed coming. She told me she didn't know their route that morning (that put my hackles up) but she was sure they were coming. Why don't you know what their route is, you're in charge, I ask. Silence. If they're going to be late surely they would have the common courtesy to ring and let us know. Silence. Well if I keep quite now surely she'll say something!! If I keep talking I'll flay her alive. She eventually offers to ring them and find out what's happening and call me back. Well that's a start. Five minutes later she calls back, they told her they were going to be 15 mins early and they knew they couldn't do that so they went somewhere else, they'll be there in 10 minutes - 9.50am (keep that in mind cos the next big will seem crazy).

By 10.00 they still hadn't turned up so I started washing Mark myself, he'd been waiting an hour by this time. 10.30 they finally rang the bell and I was out there like a Rottweiler I was so angry. I told them they couldn't come in and that I was extremely angry that they're an hour and half late and didn't have the courtesy to call. Keep up now. She apologised for not calling but thought they were doing the right thing by not coming early because Mark wouldn't be ready for them at 7.15am. That stopped me in my tracks. What do you mean he wouldn't be ready at 7.15, of course he wouldn't he's not even out of bed, you're supposed to be here at 9.00 ish. Feel like I'm loosing my grip on reality here now. Well we've got him down for 7.30 - 7.45 call. I lost it a bit then and told them what I thought of their rubbish organisation while still trying to process how they thought being 3 hours late by their timings was acceptable. When I asked that question they had no answer, this whole conversation seems a be a bit surreal to me now. I tell them they're not coming in, go away and get your act together. They're on trial now as far as I'm concerned, they've a couple of weeks to show some intelligence and get their act together or we're buying this rubbish service from someone else.

This morning on the news it was announced that a large scale investigation is planned into these care agencies because 'someone' feels the clients aren't getting a good deal - YOU THINK!!!!!