Says she can't stand the smell of urine in the house. What the h*ll? I think she took one look at his toilet yesterday and said no way. Umm aren't these professionals that are supposed to help with hygene, diapering if needed assistance to toileting etc? What are we paying for? I had to clean the entire house myself the day after she was there? Am I dreaming? Do in-home caregivers not know how to help the incontinent? So upset beyond words.
Please have sufficient gloves and other needed items on hand
My caregivers dealt with some messes from diarrhea episodes but none ever did any major cleaning
They would take the trash bag out to the can on their way out
After a meal they'd put dishes in the dishwasher but they scratched the porcelain sink with pots because they wouldn't put the mat down
Expect things to get broken
One yanked the cupboard door so
Hard she ripped the child lock off which was protection for earthquakes
Some agency agreements stipulate you must hire a separate cleaning agency - ha ha
When I described the job responsibilities I was very upfront and honest about the bathrooming. Even when they said they were okay with it I took it a little further- kind of a worst case scenario thing.
There is no point in being anything but completely honest when it comes to this subject - cause they're gonna find out soon enough and having it come as a surprise is even worse.
The caregivers that my parents had were all from two different agencies. As others have described the housekeeping duties were secondary to the care of the person and was to be of the "light" variety. But generally we were lucky as the two main caregivers - who were both full time employees - liked to "keep busy" as they put it and they did a lot of extra stuff. Still - neither did the work of a housekeeper- nor was that expected.
I used caregivers from a professional Agency and the contracted stated they can do "light" housekeeping when time permits. No way would I expect the caregiver to take care of my Dad AND clean the house.
If the budget can handle this, hire a weekly cleaning crew to come to the house.
or
Home Health Aide
You might ask the agency to screen them in advance for you.
My Dad had explosive diarrhea in the care givers car the very first morning. She didn't come back either. No way I could have foreseen that.