Don't Be Afraid To Speak Up When The Care Is Not What It Should Be

What I have been dealing with the past few weeks has been an incredible education on speaking up for ourselves and our loved ones. We recently put my mom on hospice care and as I have been trying to teach people the earlier you go on hospice the better as they can give you many forms of comfort and care before you are at end of life. We have already benefitted.

After finding a company we liked we signed on with them. Everything went very well and the care team was wonderful. The nurse, chaplin, care givers and social worker were all wonderful caring people and we were beyond happy. After almost three weeks with the company we received a call from our nurse Friday telling us that she was no longer going to be able to care for my mom as the entire team was being moved to another area and we were going to get all new people but they had no idea who those people would be. She was absolutely devastated and so you could tell how difficult it was for her to tell me. This was Friday afternoon.

I immediately emailed the manager of the team as well as the CEO of the company as I had heard this was happening to many many families in the area as the change was a sudden massive overhaul of the company and everyone from the company was shocked and stunned. The CEO responded to me with an email saying she understood I was upset but it was after 4:00pm on a Friday and she would have to talk to someone Monday and that I should have a great weekend. Yes that is what she said after I had been told my mom's entire care team was gone within a moment and no new team was in place.

Needless to say I felt that was not going to work going into the weekend so I finally, after many more emails received a phone call and an email from the care managers telling me that the nurse we had would in fact still remain our nurse and the rest of the team would be replaced. Monday morning I received a text from the nurse that she had just found out at the company meeting that morning that she was now not remaining with my mom and they still had no replacement team in place so I would have to wait for the afternoon to hear who would be caring for my mom. Back and forth all weekend.

The nurse that we were assigned to finally called and was not very warm and I am sure frustrated with the changes as well on a personal level but she told me she was the nurse and she had no other information and she didn't know when she would be out to see my mom and that was the best she could do for me as far as information. So as you would expect I fired the company today. Any company that would treat their patients this way is not a good company. Changes are sometimes necessary but they should effect the patients as little as possible. So while I am very upset with what happened I feel for the nurses and caregivers of the company as they have been treated poorly as well and are suffering too. I blame management and the CEO of the company for allowing things to get to this point.

Do not let anyone make you feel afraid or at their mercy when it comes to quality care for your loved ones. Speak up and speak proud for what you know is right as I did. It matters and it does make a difference. This website and my job helping seniors is ongoing education for me every single day. I am honored to be able to share it with others so they can avoid the difficult things I have not.