There are often stories in the news about senior care centers being fined or facing legal proceedings because of something that had happened. That might be financial abuse, neglect, or some other horrible crime toward residents of that care home. Sometimes it is an individual employee or worker within that organization, but not always. Sometimes it is a group of individuals or even management itself.
The whole issue can make it so we have no desire to go outside of our family when it comes to helping an older loved one receive care. Even something like in-home care, where a caregiver comes to you, can become a frightening thought.
These are horrible occurrences and should never happen. But they do, unfortunately. That’s the world that we live in. People can do bad things for their own good without caring how others are impacted by it.
The truth is, we have a responsibility to help those around us. If you entrust a service or individual with helping to care for someone, then they should be held accountable for their actions. If something criminal happens, or if some sort of preventable catastrophe occurs, as a family member, you want to be able to hold those people accountable for their actions and have the legal system assisting you in making things right–even if it is not something that can truly compensate for what happened. Safeguards are important because they help us to know that the people we trust will be more likely to do what they’re supposed to be doing, if only because there is a system of justice in place to encourage them to do so.
But we also have an obligation to do our best to make sure that the people we care about are receiving the best care that we can get them. It would be irresponsible for us as family members to just hire anybody to provide senior care and expect that they will do so in the precise way that our loved one needs it. This might mean checking out the options near you to make sure that the service you choose is best suited to help. It could mean checking references on a caregiver that you are thinking of hiring. Or, it could mean taking a more active role in decision making when it comes to your loved one’s care. Each situation is unique, and the family role behind the senior care that’s being implemented will be different based upon this.
Luckily, there are some things that can be done for you in this area to help take that burden off of your shoulders. For example, a lot of caregiving services (including Paradise In-Home Care) provide background checks prior to hiring a caregiver to come on as a staff member. Ongoing training, observation, and plenty of support can also help provide staff with what they need to keep providing excellent care.
These are things that you should expect a service to do for your family. If you’re not sure, then these are good conversations to have before you make a decision regarding who to hire.
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