Three months ago my husband fell and broke his shoulder. After spending a week in a nursing home, we were given one day's notice that medicare would not pay for any more days because they felt he was not getting enough therapy there. Having little time to make any decisions, we put our trust in a representative from our Health Group. Opting for 24/7 care in our home, he put us in touch with a Board and Care facility that could provide the service we needed.


We were very fortunate to receive good health care with professional caregivers. But this is the frightening thing. The first caregiver we had made the remark that this was his first assignment where there was a mate in the house. And I soon learned that even though we were in good hands, some of the things would have been passed by had I not been there to supervise. As things progressed we no longer needed 24/7, so we hired a caregiver to spend 8 hours a night.

The facility assured me that the caregiver would stay awake all night, and in the morning would be able to administer my husband's insulin shot. Feeling assured, and confident, I went and had a good night's sleep. In the morning my husband relayed to me that when he went out to get a drink of water in the middle of the night the caregiver was sprawled out on the couch, sound asleep. In the morning when I asked her to administer the insulin shot, she said she did not know how. She had to call someone to tell her how to test his blood sugar. Then when I called the owner of the facility and told him what had happened, he said he was not aware that she could not do the insulin, and that she would sleep on the job. Yet, the morning before he sat at our dining room table and assured us she could do the job.


What can we do? We entrust our loved ones to complete strangers. And, invariably, as the caregiver mentioned, there is no mate around to supervise. We need to be aware that these things happen. And we need to speak up. Once we are aware that these things happen we can be more vocal, and perhaps facilities will be held more responsible. So, SENIORS BEWARE