When dad moved in with me, I went to a health service to hire help with the transition, and then scale down to twice a week. Dad was in pretty bad shape when he moved in, respiratory infection, sundowners, etc... We had five rotating through, it was awful, each being a replacement for the next. One would not do anything unless you specifically told her what to do and when. Another wouldn't do anything and didn't know how to do anything. Another was nice and did a good job but was a heavy smoker and even though I did not allow smoking in the house, the smell still bothered dad badly. And one was very helpful, jumped right in and did whatever needed to be done. Beware.... you know what they say, if it seems too good to be true it probably is. The woman throughout the time she worked would drop hints of her background which I took note of. I found out gradually that she knows how to break into cars, houses, etc... I took note, set up a monitor too. She went through paperwork at my desk claimed she was looking for my dad's old medication list. Then she started to play my dad for what she could get out of him after getting nothing out of me. She's asked for more hours which he then would obsess over, she asked for stuff from both of our houses, and of late tried to set up a scam on my dad to "buy" his house from him, but have him finance her down payment for him, she knows I have DPOA for dad, and said not one word to me about it until she was ready to look at his house. I've been lucky enough to have some time off from work the last two weeks and line out a different service and get rid of this woman without it affecting my job. It makes me sick there's people like this out there. I confronted the woman about the house deal, she just looked at me, no denial and said flat out he doesn't even have the money he said he had. It just makes me sick there's people like this out there. What do you do when you go through a reputable company but low life's are still hired? I guess I have to run my own background checks, but that isn't always going to bring up anything, you can ask for references, but it'll just be their friends. Really what do you do to weed out these people? And when the new health aide gets on a regular schedule, do I need to set up a video monitor too, to protect my dad and my property. I also found out this last health aide was informing dad on how he could have his POA changed. Ya. You need help, have to bring people in and then have to babysit them?
Many of these, are physically, mentally or otherwise impaired, and shouldn't be working.
Many around our neck of the woods, tell people they are Nurses, and imply, heavily, that they are Licensed nurses--like an RN or LPN---they drill that term into people, making them think the worker has more knowledge and training than they really have. THAT is illegal, but some of those are sly enough with their wording, they aren't actually clearly stating they are Licensed nurses, just allowing the listener to believe that.
Emphasis is No Longer on worker's hygiene, habits, and actual working knowledge and capabilities. If a client complains, someone else is sent to the house. Trouble is, Agencies too often keep reassigning some workers who really should never have been hired.
The RN's that come to the house too often UNDER-assess need--so not enough help gets assigned to your elder.
The Aids sent to the home often wear loud chemical body products, smoke, or otherwise can be offensive;
They lack adequate training--OR, their own health is too compromised to do the work.
An aide showed up as a temp. in hospice /med-surg, toting a pistol stuffed between their breasts---the gun slipped out, fell to the floor, could have gone off and hit someone----had a dickens of a time convincing the woman to let me lock it in the Narc drawer until shift's end. She did an adequate job as an aide, but she clearly was poor and struggling to make her life better. But since she was intractable about carrying a pistol for her own protection, there was no way she could return to work at our facility.
Maybe rules need changed---like, check carry permits and mandate locking up weapons workers carry as part of protocol.
Home Health agencies too often send workers to homes loaded with chemicals and smoke--putting the workers at risk.
Aides too often get sent to care for patients who suddenly turn violent or otherwise escalate behaviorally, in a one: one---which places both patient and worker at risk, unnecessarily.
There are loads of horror stories.
There are also Good stories, though I think those are fewer than the bad stories.
When Home Health Care Workers are paid adequately, TRAINED adequately, and not sabotaged by management, there might be a better quality of workers.
Agencies do background checks, but they may be fudging on those--doing too little / low-grade/cheaper checks.
You have to do some of that yourself.
AND, you need to keep vigilant.
It's a really great idea to install nanny-cams.
It's a real good idea to have legal paperwork as tight-secure from changes, as possible....
Like, if Dad gave you POA, are you also his legal Guardian?
Has he been declared mentally incompetent by a Doc, yet?
Has ANY documentation by Docs listed dementia of any kind, mental weakness, need for protectors? THOSE steps are most protective of the elder's assets.
It's Elders who have NOT been diagnosed or listed as having any mental issues, who only did half the job of protecting themselves and their assets....
THOSE are the ones most vulnerable to the kind of crooks who would hand-hold them to new lawyers, to change all their legal documents to be in the Home-care worker's benefit.
OTH, those who have taken steps to have diagnoses on record, and/or legal documentation in place, that make the elder be "incompetent for purposes of executing legal paperwork or handling their own finances and care",
...those are more protected from slime-balls trying to wrangle away someone's assets. But even those are not 100% protected.
If the slime-ball worker is in cahoots with a slime-ball lawyer, they can pull off a boatload of asset damage, if family fails to be vigilant about workers and what's going on in the elder's care, etc.
NannyCams, and whatever other monitoring devices you can think of:
Do Them!
As the one worker said--she knows how to find all of those---well, just have to make sure the system keeps up-and-running.
It's sometimes useful to use some counter-talk to fake those workers out, too....Like, so what if they find the nanny cams? You casually let it leak that the system was installed by someone else, and has not been working for years--or, the installers did a bad job of it, and there's not enough money to fix it....putting the crooks worries about surveillance to rest--making them lazy.
As a Worker lets certain things about themselves drop on you, you can 'seed' their [[usually]] paranoid brains with things that make them be wary or lax about you, too.
You can learn to use their own tactics against them--which might mean learning some things about dishonest behaviors and human psychology--but it's worth it.
You can also make sure important things are locked up in ways the workers don't see them, and are not tempted to pry--make it hidden, make it hard to access for anyone who doesn't know the right way to get at the concealed area, or, move it OUT of the house they are working in, where they have no access..
It's too bad we have to think about or deal with this stuff.
It's too bad people feel so stressed, so threatened, that so many more are doing illegal things.
And yes, you should do your own background checks and call their references. If it's their friends instead of legitimate ex-employers, you can usually tell, if you ask them enough questions.