I'm cross again...just a bit.
Remember the lady I wrote about, whose neighbour threw rubbish over the fence? Well, nothing more came of that - the paper didn't publish my letter, but I think the neighbour got the message when I spoke to her anyway.
But my client, the same disabled person - really cops it hard sometimes. She gets two newsapapers delivered each day. There was a time many years ago, when paper boys as we called them, put the paper into a special slot in your letterbox, or put them on the front porch right outside your front door. But not now, it seems. The newspapers are wrapped up VERY tightly in plastic, and hurled into front yards from a moving vehicle...at least that is how it appears. Now my client cannot walk safely on uneven ground, so if her papers land on the front lawn, she is unable to retrieve them, as she would have to step over the garden bed to get them. Her neighbours being such kind and thoughtful people NOT, would never dream of picking the papers up and dropping them at her front door, so sometimes the papers will lie on the ground for a couple of days. She phoned the newsagent several times to ask if the person delivering the papers would at least aim for the driveway, if not her front porch (but that would be too much to ask, and she didn't really expect that...). The first two times she phoned, he said he would leave a note for the paper delivery man. Nothing changed. So I phoned him on Tuesday. Put on my nicest voice, said who I was (the Home Carer) and explained the situation. He said "I've already left notes - there's nothing else I can do". "Oh," says I, "well our local newspaper is always interested in human interest stories. I'm sure they would take the side of a disabled person who makes such a simple request?" Wooo!! He huffed and puffed and spluttered, and I said "I'll leave it with you". The next day, my client's papers were in the driveway where she could reach them. Isn't it funny how people respond to little hints about bad service being made public?
This isn't all she has to put up with. One of her other carers, who is supposed to do her weekly shopping in a two hour time span, takes about four hours, because she picks her kids up from school and does other personal messages, which delay her getting back to our client's home at the correct time. I threatened to 'dob her in', but my client, like most vulnerable people - said not to, as she is scared of retaliation or repercussions. Isn't that awful? I told our supervisor anyway, but didn't give any names, and she told me to ask the client to call her direct to discuss it.
On the lighter side of my work, another client opened the door yesterday morning in a rather distressed state. She took me into the kitchen and pointed to a corner near the ceiling. You can guess, can't you? Yup - a HUGE huntsman spider. It was a bit too high for me to climb up with a glass jar, so I got the vaccuum cleaner out and sucked him down. He was so big, that I actually felt his body hurtling through the plastic pipe - UGH! I kept the motor running while I carried the whole cleaner outside, and then turned it off, gingerly opened it up, and took out the paper bag, wearing my rubber gloves the whole time. Nothing scuttled out of the bag, so I quickly threw it into her garbage bin in the garage, and warned my client to keep her car windows shut tightly while it was parked in there!
Ah, the joys of caring for people..
But my client, the same disabled person - really cops it hard sometimes. She gets two newsapapers delivered each day. There was a time many years ago, when paper boys as we called them, put the paper into a special slot in your letterbox, or put them on the front porch right outside your front door. But not now, it seems. The newspapers are wrapped up VERY tightly in plastic, and hurled into front yards from a moving vehicle...at least that is how it appears. Now my client cannot walk safely on uneven ground, so if her papers land on the front lawn, she is unable to retrieve them, as she would have to step over the garden bed to get them. Her neighbours being such kind and thoughtful people NOT, would never dream of picking the papers up and dropping them at her front door, so sometimes the papers will lie on the ground for a couple of days. She phoned the newsagent several times to ask if the person delivering the papers would at least aim for the driveway, if not her front porch (but that would be too much to ask, and she didn't really expect that...). The first two times she phoned, he said he would leave a note for the paper delivery man. Nothing changed. So I phoned him on Tuesday. Put on my nicest voice, said who I was (the Home Carer) and explained the situation. He said "I've already left notes - there's nothing else I can do". "Oh," says I, "well our local newspaper is always interested in human interest stories. I'm sure they would take the side of a disabled person who makes such a simple request?" Wooo!! He huffed and puffed and spluttered, and I said "I'll leave it with you". The next day, my client's papers were in the driveway where she could reach them. Isn't it funny how people respond to little hints about bad service being made public?
This isn't all she has to put up with. One of her other carers, who is supposed to do her weekly shopping in a two hour time span, takes about four hours, because she picks her kids up from school and does other personal messages, which delay her getting back to our client's home at the correct time. I threatened to 'dob her in', but my client, like most vulnerable people - said not to, as she is scared of retaliation or repercussions. Isn't that awful? I told our supervisor anyway, but didn't give any names, and she told me to ask the client to call her direct to discuss it.
On the lighter side of my work, another client opened the door yesterday morning in a rather distressed state. She took me into the kitchen and pointed to a corner near the ceiling. You can guess, can't you? Yup - a HUGE huntsman spider. It was a bit too high for me to climb up with a glass jar, so I got the vaccuum cleaner out and sucked him down. He was so big, that I actually felt his body hurtling through the plastic pipe - UGH! I kept the motor running while I carried the whole cleaner outside, and then turned it off, gingerly opened it up, and took out the paper bag, wearing my rubber gloves the whole time. Nothing scuttled out of the bag, so I quickly threw it into her garbage bin in the garage, and warned my client to keep her car windows shut tightly while it was parked in there!
Ah, the joys of caring for people..
posted by Gina E. | 1:11 am
2 Comments:
"I'll leave it to you", lol. Nicely done. My mom is 80, and although she's in great health, I think it's crappy that they make her walk to the end of the driveway and sometimes even have to fish it out of the stream in front of her house. I miss the days of paper boys and kids learning a job well done versus a hand out for allowance. I think all papers all adult-delivered via car now. That's a shame.
Yeah, it's the same here now, Barb. Sounds like you need to make a similar phone call to your newspaper delivery people about the bad service to your Mum...got a local paper you can quote?
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