Cross-Contamination, Etc, Slight Vent

[Skayda]

Hello again everyone!

I have been working, since this summer, at a residential home for DD clients and for the most part I love it; there's no lifting, no toileting messes, no call bells. I cook, clean, pass meds and help the residents with their bathing in the morning. They can all dress themselves, feed themselves, etc. Even though these people are adults, they have do have child-like personalities and love to color, bead string for necklaces, listen to audio books or look at pictures, etc.

When doing the wash, etc, I have been here long enough to know what belongs to who but I have been told that I am not allowed to wash the females' laundry with the males, (but it's okay to wash the females' laundry together with another female's and vice versa for the males), because of fear of "cross-contamination".

Also, the female residents are not allowed to be visiting the males alone in their rooms and vice versa. I asked why once and the answer I got back was that it; "Just looks bad,".

I'm wondering what, exactly, is the risk of washing their laundry together other than something not getting put in the right drawer, etc. Cross-contamination of what, exactly, the dreaded cooties virus? Keep in mind this is a small house with only five residents whose rooms are all three right across the hall from each other. And they share two bathrooms, eat together, etc.

And is there some rule that says it's bad to allow men and women time alone together in their rooms? Common areas are fine, though, and same gender residents can visit each other in their rooms just fine.

Thank you all for reading this!

[Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN]

Well, you've got my attention. I'm not sure what "contamination" they might be referring to. I can somewhat understand the visitation rules. If some of these people have "child-like" personalities, it's theoretically possible for them to be taken advantage of.

[Skayda]

Well you've got my attention. I'm not sure what "contamination" they might be referring to. I can somewhat understand the visitation rules. If some of these people have "child-like" personalities, it's theoretically possible for them to be taken advantage of.[/quote']

Well, they all have child-like personalities so I highly doubt any of them would even know what it means to take advantage of another so I'm not sure the gender-specific visiting between housemates isn't just a hang-up of the owner. And no one else is allowed in the facility unless they have gotten prior approval by the owner and have passed an extensive background check. It's a small house. I am very aware of who comes to visit the residents. Regardless, I try to steer them out to the kitchen to color together or sit in the living room to listen to/watch the TV. It's not worth getting fired for even though I can't see what it's hurting really since they are all like a bunch of five-year-olds. And I say that with love and care. All of them have almost no understanding of back and forth conversational skills and communication with them is all one-sided verbally with caregiver asking questions to determine feelings/wants and the residents will give one-word answers or gestures so when they like to "visit" each other that just means they enjoy being in the same room together.

As for the laundry thing; I am stumped, too. I could understand it if they were prone to having accidents but they aren't. The owner did tell me she didn't want the men's underwear touching the women's underwear in the wash. The only thing I can think of is; "Eeew! Cooties!"

Lol!

[RNdynamic]

I don't know what DD clients are.

[mstearns09]

I don't know what DD clients are.

Developmentally disabled.

[mstearns09]

Hello again everyone!

I have been working, since this summer, at a residential home for DD clients and for the most part I love it; there's no lifting, no toileting messes, no call bells. I cook, clean, pass meds and help the residents with their bathing in the morning. They can all dress themselves, feed themselves, etc. Even though these people are adults, they have do have child-like personalities and love to color, bead string for necklaces, listen to audio books or look at pictures, etc.

When doing the wash, etc, I have been here long enough to know what belongs to who but I have been told that I am not allowed to wash the females' laundry with the males, (but it's okay to wash the females' laundry together with another female's and vice versa for the males), because of fear of "cross-contamination".

Also, the female residents are not allowed to be visiting the males alone in their rooms and vice versa. I asked why once and the answer I got back was that it; "Just looks bad,".

I'm wondering what, exactly, is the risk of washing their laundry together other than something not getting put in the right drawer, etc. Cross-contamination of what, exactly, the dreaded cooties virus? Keep in mind this is a small house with only five residents whose rooms are all three right across the hall from each other. And they share two bathrooms, eat together, etc.

And is there some rule that says it's bad to allow men and women time alone together in their rooms? Common areas are fine, though, and same gender residents can visit each other in their rooms just fine.

Thank you all for reading this!

Even though they may not mentally be their chronological age, they still have hormonal drives like their neurotypical counterparts and I have known some to be quite uninhibited when it comes to physical affection. It could cause some issues but if it is a small home, then it shouldn't be difficult to keep in check.

[enuf_already]

The DD (developmentally disabled) population is a high-risk population for abuse (including physical and sexual). Since most of your residents function around age 5 and are not very verbal, I would assume washing male and female clothes separately is to protect your agency from allegations of abuse. There was an article written in 1996 about how sperm was transferred from a pair of underwear to other pairs of brand new underwear during washing.

As silly as this all sounds, the owner of your facility probably wants to remove any concerns of cross contamination during laundering as a possibility as to why spermatozoa ended up in a female resident's underwear. Imagine being drug through a court trial due to concerns a resident had been sexually abused when the only evidence (sperm in underwear from another resident) was due to doing male and female laundry together. Opposite sex restrictions in bedrooms also prevents residents from innocently playing doctor.

I am happy to hear you and your employer are protecting this very vulnerable population--and yourself. Thank you for being dedicated to and working with this population!

[RNdynamic]

Yeah, there is no infection related reason not to wash men's and women's clothes together any more than there is washing different men's clothes together or different women's clothes together. It isn't as if men and women's clothing carry micro organisms that the opposite sex is especially susceptible to.