General Chat

someone on tv says

"There is no reason for anyone to be unemployed because there are alway Care jobs".

This isn't a job that 'just anyone' can do, it is totally unfair to the person being cared for if you have no aptitude or love or anything other than just being told that 'anyone can do this'. People have ruined their own health as carers, I know this, from lifting and the stress, but it's been done out of love. How much 'love' does £6.30 an hour buy if you have no wish to do that job and are just pushed into it?

Sorry for the rant, just watching 'Nick and Margaret', and I found it wholly inappropriate that this was the attitude when taking theunemployed bloke along to a client.

I have heard the same at the jobcentre. When I was there it was 'oh well anyone can do this job' ..."so the person needing care needs to be hoisted, well sure that can't be difficult can it? you have no training? never mind we'll send you for that job anyway........" :-|

I wouldn't want to do it. Oh dear no, not bodily functions!

Put myself out of action with the hoist once. Don't know what I did but I was in agony for ten days.

We have never been too keen on the young girls who do the job and I really don't think it is a job for them. They are usually the ones who want to discuss their social lives over Fred's head while he is being hoisted on to the commode and I think that is very rude.

I couldn't agree more Rose.

I have worked nights in a nursing home and Mum was in a nursing home for several years until her death.

Having seen both sides, the best carers are those who choose to work in an environment that is emotionally and physically challenging at times.

It isn't a fill in job until something better comes along, it is wrong to expose vulnerable patients or residents of a care home to staff that are only working there because they have to.

Agree absolutely. Just think of all the recent scandals at Winterbourne View and other places where vulnerable / sick / disabled individuals have been, at best, poorly or clumsily treated and, at worst, horrifically abused.

Those taking up care posts should WANT to do it, be properly trained and supervised, and be paid a decent wage.

i trained to do it, but my heart wasnt in it, but i just wanted a job, any job till i got in the sector im initially trained in, and it seemed care jobs were everywere,
luckiy a job perfect for me came up not in adult care

pay peanuts - get monkeys :-S

Totally agree Rose. Not everyone is a natural caregiver - some are too wrapped up in themselves to take other people's feelings into consideration.

i know some absolutly amazing carers who are paid peanuts but are definatly not monkeys

Did I hear orrectly ...

That the carer was being £11,00 ph and working a 14 hour day -- £154. 00 a day

Agreed Stray. Those who are natural carers are worth their weight in gold.

they sure are Cynthia, some give there heart and soul into there jobs, and are amazing,

the ones round here Rene are minimum wage mostly

There was a lady worked in my office took redundancy a couple of years ago, decided to look for another job. There were quite a number of job adverts for carers so she thought (as she had looked after her elderly parents) that was the path she'd follow. What an awakening she got.

Whilst she is a very caring sort of person who could relate to the clients, the organisation she worked for was only out for profit, profit, profit.

She had timeslots allocated for each client that were totally unrealistic and insufficient time to get from one job to another. She was mortified that she couldn't give her clients the care she felt they needed but her concerns were brushed aside.

She left the job for something completely different (she does still pop in to see a couple of the old people she cared for, now as a friend).

could I say I didn't intend to be disrespectful to carers, but it's like domestics in the health service, since the service was privatised post Trust, the pay is abysmal and in my opinion that is why cleanliness standards in hospital have plummeted - why should they care if they clean properly

They should be paid more - domestics have an important part to play in the running of a hospital, just as important as a surgeon

I did hear the £11 an hour Renes, I think given my limited experience working VERY briefly for one of the Care companies, ( it was a newly set up franchise branch) that she must have been a 'Care manager', ie fully qualified and experienced... where I was, 'Sue' (not real name) was covering many of the jobs herself until and if there were enough clients to go round and give the newly trained (3 days) carers enough work.

That was why I left it, the contract was ' approx 16 hrs + a week' ( as advertised through job centre) but all the newly trained people on the course found they were only being offered 1 or 2 hours a week at best, and perhaps having to drive an hour to get there.

The wage for the carer was £6.95 or 7.25 an hour, the fee to the client (out of which the £6.95 was paid) was over £15.95 or £16.95. How many people can afford even an hour a day at that rate?

AnnCardiff Pay peanuts you get monkeys.

Cynthia I'm not sure you have to be to wrapped up in yourself not to be a carer, paid or otherwise. I have always maintained I could do anything to aid a child's needs and any one who is mentally handicapped, but I would run a mile rather than work with the elderly ............................. unless they were family.

RamblingRose you have to undergo training before you can use a hoist

Renes bank workers can easily earn £11 a hour.

Crikey I must type slowly AnnCardiff no domestics/cleaners no hospital.

Lesley ( and the lovely David who I have to say 'hello' to everytime I look at your avatar ;-) ) I didn't stay long enough to have the training to use the hoist, though some did I know.

it's tough going caring for the elderly - particularly those with dementia as care is always up close and personal - at our hospital we had more incident forms for injuries to nurses from the elderly wards than from the forensic and acute - my daughter in law is a qualified nurse and has chosen to work with the elderly mentally ill - she loves it, so I should be OK for care if I lose my marbles :-D

it is not something I could ever do,

and my personal opinion is, that carers, like nurses , should be very well paid.



x

Eldest worked in a care home whilst at school to earn spending money. Patients loved her and she them. The owner of the first home she worked at told her off for spending too much time talking with the patients in Welsh.......she left after 6 months and started at another small home.

Youngest went there for two days. She left after an old chap held his hand out and she opened hers and he plopped his false teeth into her palm! Didn't see her for dust :-)

You have to have 'it' to provide the best care. Youngest has promised to find us a nice care home :-D