The carers keep changing

[Paul Evans]

Every day its new carers and I have to take quite a bit of time to explain about my husbands dementia and how best to work with him. (They don’t seem to have been given any information before visiting!) I feel this is taking up so much time that it would be easier to do it myself. I have my own health issues so am unable to do his care now and feeling very guilty, also getting angry with the carers which I know is wrong, can anyone suggest how I deal with this?

[Amanda Woodhead]

Hello, I work within social care and have personal experience in my family of a person living with dementia and receiving care.
Unfortunately, due to high staff turnover and sickness it can’t be guaranteed a particular set of carers will be available. You could try contacting the care agency and asking for a small rotation of carers, perhaps two or three that can be regular carers with others filling in only when necessary.
The carers should have access to your husband’s care plan, it may be worth informing the care coordinator of your concern if you haven’t already as this could help when requesting particular carers who may work better with your husband.
A final resort is changing to a different agency hoping they may be more sympathetic, though you may be faced with other teething problems.
It is important to look after your own health and having some support from carers might seem more trouble than it’s worth, but likely to be increasingly helpful as things change in the future.
Take care.

[Katy Evans]

Hello, thank you for your post and for sharing with the forum.
One of the main objectives within the Social Care acts within the UK, is that what matters/what’s important to the person is at the forefront of all assessments so that they are person-centred. The realities of the social care system is that care in the community is often a challenge in delivery, with covid making care delivery far from ideal due to staff shortages. All care packages should have an individual care plan that the care agency (and in turn the carers) are given. Perhaps it is worth asking to see this care plan to try and understand what has been shared? For carers to understand your husband’s needs in the way that you do, it may be worth asking for a meeting with your husband’s care manager/social worker to review the plan and then meet with the agency to address this and the issue in terms of different carers?

Continuity of care is essential in dementia care and it sounds as though the different carers are leading to a negative experience. Please speak to the care agency and social worker and stress the detrimental effect this is having on both yourself and your husband. In some areas, there are care agencies which specifically work with people with dementia and it may be worth exploring if there are any that you would be able to access?

As a discussion for the carer forum, have many people been able to access dementia-specialist care agencies? What has been your experience of these? What has helped you in similar situations with care agencies?

Feeling guilty about not being able to care is a natural response, and it is important that you recognise that although your husband is having a care package, you continue to provide the remaining care throughout the day/night, but also are ensuring that your husband’s best interests are being met. Please see our Virtual Care Centre for support on well-being and there are also links to our Live Online Learning sessions.
Kind Regards, Dementia Carers Count

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