Caregivers in Forest Hills, NY – Establishing Boundaries Early is Important to the Privacy of the Caregiver and Senior Alike
John wasn’t a very experienced caregiver when he first took the job with an elderly gentleman named Sam. John was actually still going to college and needed some extra money. Despite all his other efforts, he wasn’t able to secure a job at anything other than fast food restaurants. He wanted something different and when he noticed the ad for a caregiver, he decided to take advantage of the situation.
John was hired through an agency and received some basic training. He was given certain advice regarding techniques and strategies to help the patient in the best way possible. On his first day, he was very nervous but Sam made him feel at home right away.
Within the first couple of weeks, John realized that Sam was a high functioning individual who only needed a little bit of support from time to time. This meant that John was able to study and do homework while he was at Sam’s house, as long as Sam was okay with it, which he tended to be most days.
John met Sam’s family, his adult children, one afternoon when they came by for a visit. Before he realized it, he was handing over his phone number and getting theirs as well. Within a few days, one of Sam’s adult children called John to talk to him about their father. The first call was relatively innocent. They were asking about John, his experiences, what he was going to college for, and other things that pretty much strayed away from their father and his care.
However, they began to call more frequently and ask very personal questions about their father, especially about his health, medications he was taking, and even the doctor he was visiting. John didn’t think much about it and was telling them what they wanted to hear and giving them answers to most of the questions.
This ended up getting back to Sam and he was upset with John about this. Sam didn’t fire John, but offered him a valuable learning experience.
When you are a caregiver for an elderly patient, or for any patient, there is certain information that you can and shouldn’t share with their family members. Anything that is personal in nature should be left to the patient to divulge to their loved ones if they want to.
That includes any issues that arise while providing home care for the patient. A family member is not entitled to know personal medical information of their loved one if that loved one doesn’t want to share it. They also don’t need to know embarrassing situations that arise, such as incontinence issues with the patient. Keep confidence when you are a caregiver for the patient has every right to his or her privacy.