Home health aid and family dysfunction

[Paul Collins]

First post!

I'm a home health aid and the family I work for are dysfunctional at best and hostile at worst.

This is my first workplace, for 2+ years, I'm entertaining leaving but wonder if this kind of environment is the industry norm?

Are there other home health aid threads here?

[EmilyEmily]

I was only a home health aide.

Out of all the cases I had, maybe ONE was decent. The really good families are very hard to get because the aides hold on to them for dear life.

Yes, its common to work for families that are dysfunctional, and to have patients/families who are chronic complainers and liars. I had one who called up the agency everyday, lying on the caregivers about what they didn't do. This patient got so many HHAs fired it wasn't even funny.

Due to my poor experiences, I will never return to home health again.

[tewdles, RN]

All families are dysfunctional, it varies by degrees.

Stressed families are more dysfuntional than others, in general.

Try not to take it personally.

Set good boundaries for behavior.

Good luck.

[I<3H2O, BSN, RN]

I believe your home health aide job is different than the aides where I work. Our aides go in a couple times per week and give the pt. a bath and move on. If the family is being hostile towards you then you shouldn't be in that home. If they are hostile to each other, I would politely ask them to refrain while I was present. Set boundaries as Tewdles said and stick to them.