When you google ‘Care Home’, you are immediately met by pictures of elderly folk and their care workers, smiling just a little too brightly. You see workers playing games with their residents; dancing, reading, talking, and even sitting down to join them in a meal. Sweet, right? To think that those family members you leave in the care of others are living their lives to the fullest. But, what if I told you that those overbearing smiles, and that unfaltering enthusiasm to help in those images, is completely fabricated?

When meeting new people and we’re asked about what we do for work, we answer simply with ‘I’m a care worker’, this is usually met by smiles and ‘Oh my! That must be such a rewarding job!’, followed closely by with a ‘Do you like it?’ Yes, I suppose in some aspect, it is a rewarding job. Knowing that you are keeping another person alive and as healthy as you can is one of the best feelings you could imagine, especially those that don’t receive visitors. Those people adopt you as their family, their face lights up when they see you and they hold you as tightly as they would hold onto their own loved ones. But, that doesn’t change the way you are treated. There always seems to be something you’ve done wrong; something you should have done differently; something you shouldn’t or should have said. Every little thing, things you would have never even thought of as an issue seem to become the end of the world. Some days, the atmosphere inside the home is so unbearably uncomfortable that workers find it difficult to do their job meticulously. They feel down in mood which ends up affecting other staff as well as the residents themselves. They may not seem it at first glance, but dementia patents have a very clear sixth sense. They can feel when the room is heavy, and when this happens, their own mood changes. They become less co-operative, refusing to take their medications, refusing to allow staff to help them with their personal care, going as far as to lash out, biting, scratching, kicking, and even slapping workers at every chance they have. Of course, in this kind of job, workers can’t do anything about this behaviour. Something that would be criminal on the streets, is protected within care homes.

These issues which care workers face on a daily basis are things in which you may never notice when visiting your loved ones; those tired, under-staffed and over-worked care workers, earning nothing more than the National Living Wage (£11.42ph) are struggling through 12-hour shifts, sometimes three days in a row, missing breaks and eating where and when they can, are pulling away at the seams. There is a simple reason why the younger generation don’t want to work in care anymore, and why hospitals and care homes are so under-staffed; it is due to workload, management, and pay. Those three little things are the key to running a successful and happy business, so why are we not applying those same principles to care homes? I’ll tell you why; because the people who own these homes, don’t care about their staff, they care about the profit they make. Once one bed is empty, within a week, it’s filled. The sad truth is this; your loves ones are simply a paycheck in a bed.

My advice to you, would be to ask around when thinking about placing your loved ones in a care home; friends, family, work colleagues, or even an online poll can be very useful when deciding which home is best for you and your relative. Instead of going off reviews and reports from organisations and past resident relatives, people who most likely have not seen the true face of said home, place your relative in the home you get the most positive feedback for, just for a week or two on respite, and come in at random times throughout the day during that time. Get a real feel of the home and watch how the staff manage and care for the residents. Not only will you be able to see how the workers manage their workload during different times of the day, but you will also be able to see how a home is managed, and if they are providing what they promised to.