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Managing The Stress ~ Making The Decisions ~ Discovering The Meaning |
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Caregiving |
Solutions To Your Caregiving Situations Throughout Your Caregiving Years |
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Your Home Care Team Communication Ensures Working Well With Agency Francine finds herself absolutely dependent on the home health aide she’s hired for her father. Before having the aide, she hated having to give her father a bath. And, she could never find the time she needed just to run to the grocery store. With the aide, she doesn’t worry about bath time and she has time to run to store--and even meet a friend for coffee. And, her father seems to like the aide. The aide has been asking for a more flexible schedule, sometimes asking to arrive an hour later, sometimes asking to leave an hour earlier. This is throwing Francine for a loop: She so loved knowing that every Monday, Wednesday and Friday she had time for herself from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. She still has time, but she’s never quite sure how much, and for how long, making it difficult to make plans. And, without plans, she has nothing to look forward to. And, that’s absolutely depressing. Francine doesn’t want to lose the aide, so she remains agreeable to the flexible schedule. But, she finds her stress level becoming as great as it was when she had to worry about bathing her father. And, it’s costing her money! Sylvia was supposed to leave her client’s home at Noon. It’s now 2 p.m. and she can see the writing on the wall: She won’t be leaving any time soon. At first, Sylvia appreciated the extra hours. So, when her client’s daughter asked her to stay and help, Sylvia gladly accepted the opportunity. Now, it’s every day. And, it’s different hours every day, which makes it hard for Sylvia to manage her own life: Picking up kids from school, helping her own invalid mother, keeping up with her own family’s laundry. But she needs the money and she needs the job. She just grits her teeth. But, she’s beginning to hate working for this client. She used to smile without any effort. Now, it takes all she can to manage any upward movement of her lips at the client’s daughter. Inside, Sylvia says to herself about the daughter: Some day, I’m just not going to come back. I’m just not going to come back. For a family member, a wonderful, caring, skilled home health aide can seem like an angel sent straight from heaven. And, to a home health aide, a respectful, caring family can seem like an answer to prayers. But, angels and prayers, used to perfection in heaven, can sometimes run into problems on imperfect earth. “The relationship between a client and a home health aide is one step from being a marriage,” explains Patricia A. Menoni, RN, BSN, Administrator, Partners in Senior Care, Inc., a home care agency based in Grayslake, Ill. “And, most problems between the two boil down to a break-down of communication.” Menoni, who has been working in the home health care field for more than a decade, encourages family caregivers working with her agency to let her know about any concerns, issues or problems—no matter how small they may appear to be. “If we talk about it, we can solve anything,” she says. Matching the right mix of personalities (family caregiver, care recipient and home health aide) can sometimes be tricky. A good, reputable agency, Menoni says, will work with a family when they have concerns about personality conflicts. “We want families to be honest with us,” she says, “to let us know that a caregiver is providing excellent care, but there’s a personality conflict. It happens.” With that information from the family, Menoni can work to find another home health aide for the care recipient and another client for the home health aide. Because Menoni wants to solve small problems, rather than battle huge issues, she asks the family to be upfront as soon as possible if a personality conflict does arise. To ensure the relationship starts off on the right foot, Menoni meets with the family and the care recipient, when appropriate, prior to the home health aide’s first visit to create a plan of care; the plan details responsibilities, expectations and goals. “It’s a road map for care,” Menoni explains. Part of setting expectations includes ensuring that the relationship between client and home health aide remains professional and friendly—but not a friendship. For that reason, Menoni asks that clients use the agency staff has a middle-man in the relationship. If a home health aide asks a family member for longer hours or shorter hours, then the family refers the aide to the agency staff. That way, the family can discuss with the agency how the aide’s request will affect them—and honestly tell the agency when an aide’s request will adversely impact their day and their routine. The family also can choose whether they can be flexible with a change in hours request or whether another aide is needed. “We want families to always feel they have options,” Menoni says. And, the request works both ways: The aide runs family suggestions through the agency staff, so that the aides maintain their own regular schedules. Hiring a home health aide is an important cog in wheel of caregiving. Keeping it greased with ongoing communication with the agency staff ensures quality, reputable help—and some well-needed, worry-free time for the family caregiver. 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