If you value the physical health, mental health and overall well being of the person you're seeking assistance for, do yourself a big favor and skip over Visiting Angels of Doylestown. They want your money, and will send anyone with a pulse to take care of your family member. I was going to say half a brain, but they have those when it comes to scamming to get paid in cash to avoid taxes, how to get government assistance and how to get over on people. All of the nuances of that mindset they have elevated up to a PHD level.
If you want constant calls about who can't be there, what time they'll show up, who's changing shifts during the day and general aggravation where you'll be popping Tums and taking aspirin, this is the agency for you. The best thing that happened is that they dropped my Mother and had to go to another agency. Sometimes blessings come in disguises because the new agency is night and day compared to these money grubbing amateurs.
There were three aids that were nice and attentive at this agency out of over twenty that circulated though my mothers house during the twelve plus months we used their service. We did use another franchise of Visiting Angels based out of Bensalem for a little while, and they were great. I am only relaying the experiences we had with Visiting Angels of Doylestown.
Here are some of our experiences, I may have forgotten a few:
They sent an aid that asked if my Mother's coffee and water had to be pureed for her to drink it.
Over the year that we used their service for my mother, only a few of more than twenty people they cycled through my mother house had no idea how to add water to the water tank on the oxygen compressor. We had to show them. Awesome training!
Most have no idea how to use a stove. If they can't microwave, they are lost.
They would wash food containers in a half assed manner with grease and food scraps still on them and put the lids on while they were still wet inside.
The coffee pot was rinsed out under running water and put back on the burner so often without really being cleaned, the burner rusted. The first thing I did when I walked in was to clean and dry that.
Sugar was stolen out of the house so the aid didn't have to buy it at home. My mother has two cups of coffee a day so how do you go through a bag of sugar in a little over a week?
I had to stop leave work and go to my mothers house because one of the aids was rolling around on the floor like the dog toy with the weasel and ball in pain and making noise. I called 911 and she walked out the door with no whining on her way to be transported to the hospital.
All, except for one individual who I hope goes to another agency, nagged my Mother to get away from the Visiting Angels and pay them in cash and they'll do the work directly for you even though they don't have any liability insurance.
One aid involved my mother in her drama while going through a divorce. She called my Mother on a Friday night at 10:15pm carrying on about who knows what. Why should an aid be calling my mother?
While she was at my mother's house, supposedly watching my mother, she would be on one of her four cell phones, cursing and carrying on with whoever was on the other end. My Mother said she did't like that language and didn't want it in her house. It fell on deaf ears.
One aid told my mother that I am an asshole because I didn't not make enough coffee for both my Mother and her to drink and in her words, she felt "that I be dissing her".
One Aid asked if she could bring her kids to my Mothers house and also watch her Sister's kids at the same time she is being paid to take care of my Mother. She said would keep them from running around and it would not be a big deal.
One aid worked the night before and fell asleep in a chair before lunch, then while my mother was eating wanted to go on into the living room even though my mother is at high risk for choking. After they went back to the living room, the Aid fell asleep again. My Brother, who isn't quiet, came into the house, went upstairs and took a shower, then came down and she was still sleeping. read more