As I travel for a living and have had my 89-year old mother living with me for the past 11 years, I have dealt with a number caregiving agencies. Visiting Angels of Scottsdale leaves much to be desired:
1. No consistency in caregivers, new ones all the time, dozens of excuses why we couldn't have the ones my mother clicked with on a more consistent basis. This never allowed my mother to build rapport/a relationship with any of them-- no warmth, conversations, camaraderie with any one caregiver on a consistent basis. They blamed the inconsistency on the fact that we asked for a varying schedule-- 4 hours daily when I was in town and 11 hours daily while out of town. "Some Angels don't want to work 4 hours, some don't want 11 hours" we were told. They don't manage their employees effectively, letting the caregivers dictate their schedules to the company rather than the other way around. We joked that the schedule was like Forrest Gump's "box of chocolates"-- you just never know what you're going to get from day to day. This was by far the #1 drawback of using Visiting Angels, a drawback that had many negative ripple effects in their service. Having to travel extensively for a living, instead of having peace of mind, I was always on pins and needles wondering what new persons are in my house.
2. Caregivers left my mother's bathroom a mess while they sat and watched TV or texted in their phones. One time they made bacon and left the kitchen floor sticky and stovetop covered in spattered grease for me to clean up. Upon my mom asking an angel to vacuum the carpet, she was told, "I'm here to take care of you, not vacuum." When we expressed concern that "light housekeeping" duties were not being done, we were told to hire a maid if we expected "deep-cleaning". We never expected deep cleaning, just simply to clean up after themselves.
3. Caregivers let food-- peaches, cherry pie, lettuce, etc-- spoil before offering it to my mom
for consumption. There were so many different caregivers sent to our house that no one caregiver could monitor what's in the refrigerator. We wasted a lot of good as a result. We asked that the Angels communicate to one another from shift to shift. If one made spaghetti for dinner and there were leftovers, write it on the white board on the fridge so the next day's angel could use it up. In 7 months, no communication between shifts ever occurred, despite our bringing it up TWICE as an opportunity for improvement.
4. We made abundantly clear from the get go that any angel sent to our house must be able to drive my mom's car-- a Lincoln town car. Instead, my mom missed a doctor's appointment (and we were charged $50) because that day's angel refused to drive her car. On another day, my mom begged to be taken out for a haircut and nail treatment, only to be refused because the caregiver would not drive her car. Why did they keep sending personnel who wouldn't drive her car when we made that one of the stipulations from the beginning.
5. I gave the agency a detailed four-page list of caregiving expectations and instructions including trash day, mail collection, mom's idiosyncrasies, etc to make it easier on the caregiver in my absence. None of them apparently ever read it in advance of coming to the house.
6. One day I was working in my home office. I noticed a couple of hours had gone by and I hadn't heard any conversation or noise coming from the living room where my mom and her caregiver were sitting. I peeked in to find my mom asleep and the caregiver texting and watching tv-- no stimulation, no conversation, no rapport, no camaraderie, no friendship.
7. I told the care coordinator that my mom's physical therapist left some simple written exercises for the Angels to do with my mom to keep her ambulatory for 15 minutes a day.
Only once did an angel do the exercises with her in an 11 hour shift.
I could go on and on and on. The worst thing is that we gave the agency TWO opportunities to improve by reviewing our concerns in detail. Nothing we discussed ever improved. Not one thing. After much heartache, today we have terminated all services and engaged the services of another agency. read more
