AgingCare

From what we were told by our loved one the caregiver that the agency sent out was horrible. She did nothing to help our loved one. We were told the girl was always texting on her phone or sleeping. She not once ever helped our loved one with anything that needed to be done. Our loved one told her not to come back and terminated the service.

I am so disappointed with everything about what 24 Hr HomeCare - Santa Clara. I am on the 6th care giver, the agency does not keep track of who is or is not showing up and I have to constantly call them and they never do a follow through with me unless I call them back. I have complained to the management over and over again. The reason I went with 24 Hr HomeCare - Santa Clara was because they allowed for less than a 4-hour limit I hired them for light cleaning and dinner preparation and they wanted to reschedule my time frame which would not be conducive to when my parents would be eating. I would never recommend them.

We hired Senior Helpers to assist with our Mom while she was on hospice. We requested them to come from 8pm-8am. Only once did they show up for this time period. Every other day they were at least 3 hours late. Additionally, they sent a new aide each day so there was no consistency amongst them. We are still owed $1,300 for unused services and we have been told for several weeks that this will be reimbursed but we still have yet to receive anything back. On top of that, they sent us a bill for $851.

They sent aides that were not professional or caring to our mom. We were very disappointed. We even gave them 2 chances.

A place for mom did refer me to Synergy Home Care for in-home care. What a place for mom did not tell me, is that their fee is an hourly fee for every hour that the care giver is present. This adds up to a whopping amount of the bill each week.

I have been a medical professional since 1978 and was very dissatisfied with the services provided to my mother by Right at Home in August and September 2015. At the time, my mother was in the end stages of ALS and required 2 caretakers around the clock to assist her. My siblings and I did thorough research and conducted interviews to hire the most compatible, trustworthy and caring individuals to assist one of us at all times in meeting my mother’s daily needs so that she could spend her last months in her home of 50 plus years. At the time, we all agreed that Right at Home would be the agency and we were willing to pay more for the services they offered. The clinical director/marketing RN was certain that she could provide trained, bonded and insured employees who had been through thorough background checks and would be able to meet my mother’s challenging needs. She informed us that she would supervise them and train them (ex: use a transfer board) if needed. If we didn’t think the employee was a good fit for us, another employee would take her place. Right at Home caregivers were hired to provide physical support, assist with hygiene, prepare light meals, perform light housekeeping and provide some companionship for my mother. With the exception of one caregiver, my opinion is they are lazy, unmotivated, not personable, unprofessional and non caring. Examples are: needing to be asked each time to do any task though there was a daily check list of what needed to be done, they were stretched out on the living room couch with feet up and shoes off (only there for a 3 hour shift), they were frequently chatting on the cell phone, texting, or surfing the web. They showed no initiative. They were unable to measure the correct amount of laundry detergent for the washer or measure the ingredients to make one minute oatmeal. On a weekend evening, a caregiver was sent who had never done more than light housekeeping in an assigned home. We kindly sent her away and when we called the operations director to report this, his casual response was they couldn’t find anyone else and it was only for one shift. We had been very clear on our needs. It is my opinion that Right at Home management fell far short of delivering what was promised. There was no training on the job nor supervision. My mother’s care plan was never updated, as promised in the initial interview, to reflect her deteriorating condition, including a broken ankle, high risk of choking, inability to speak, the development of a pressure sore , etc. I feel I have an obligation to share our experience with Right at Home. We paid Right at Home thousands of dollars for 6 weeks and received unsatisfactory services in return. The only reviews we could find, when we were looking for assistance in caring for our mother, were the glowing testimonials on their website.

We had contracted an aide for my Mom for 6 days and only used 3. We have been trying to get our unused payment back for 5 months now. They do not return phone calls, answer emails or letters. The aide they sent was okay, but did not encourage my mother to get up or move around at all. She sat next to her and read most of the time. Would not recommend.

My family had a very disheartening experience with Right At Home (RAH) when we hired them to care for our terminally ill mother. We used the 24/7 live-in help for 3 weeks and then switched to shorter term hourly help for another 4 weeks. From the beginning we had various issues with the caregivers which we brought to the attention of RAH, but I believe the crux of the problem was with poor management. RAH did not deliver what they stated/promised on their website...their reality never matched our expectations. Because of the problems (both major and minor) that we had, I question how rigorous their selection process (reference checks, background clearance, personal interview, and competency testing) actually was. Their specialized training to match the aide to her assignment was definitely lacking. The Custom Care Plan for our mother was not particularly detailed and was basically composed from information we gave to their clinical director, not from an assessment done by her. Since the caregivers did not keep daily care logs (as stated they would on their website) my mother's deteriorating condition was never noted so her care plan was not modified accordingly. To assist the caregivers we composed a checklist with the approval of RAH yet, for the most part, it was never consulted or annotated. The promise of regular, unannounced visits to supervise the caregivers was not fulfilled. In the 7 weeks there was one visit, and that was at our request. Although we reached out to RAH with our concerns there was very little follow through from them. Their stated mission to "improve the quality of life for those we serve" fell way short in our case. Please look elsewhere for quality help in your home.

I am so so disappointed in your agency. I realize that home care for the elderly is a growing business and agencies are in competition for clients and for experienced, hardworking employees. We had the worse of the worse help for my mother. The first caregiver was a CNA who did help my mother but she wouldn't converse with her. She would spend most of her 6 hours sitting drinking our coffee and doing nothing. The second caregiver was not a CNA and she didn't want to do anything but sit and stare into space. She would not help my mother cut up vegetables because she claimed,"Oh no i don't do that if it's for the family". What family? My mother and father? She would not even cook dinner for them or set the table. She was totally useless. On top of that, my father was overcharged and if we didn't look at the bill, we wouldn't have known. We had to call and complain. also, they quoted us the wrong hourly rate when we first met with the sales agent. Beware, everyone, of exactly what kind of care you're going to get

I recommend you DO NOT hire Right at Home for in home health care services. My family and I made the difficult decision to hire in-home health care to care for our mother. We diligently discussed whether to hire an aide on our own or to go a more expensive route and hire a private agency. We chose to go the more expensive route primarily because we were assured we would get trained, insured employees who had gone through an extensive background check and would be supervised. After interviewing 3 different agencies we decided to go with Right at Home because they seemed to be the best fit offering trained, supervised employees (vs contract personnel), customized care logs, individual care plans and were able to meet our time needs. Further they represented that they were bonded and insured and did thorough background checks on all their employees. We looked for online reviews from previous clients, but were unable to find any (except for the positive testimonials that they obviously include on their website) so I am hoping this review about my experience will help others when deciding whether or not to use Right at Home. The majority of what the clinical director represented to us in our initial interview was never delivered, including customized care plans (adjusted if there were changes in condition of the patient), care logs and most importantly competent, trusted, professional employees. In my family’s situation there was always a family member in the home (often times helping) while the Right at Home aide was there. Here is a sampling of my experiences and observations: • Aide # 1 (hired for 24/7 live in care) Napping in her room and missing important meal times, constantly on her cell phone (usually speaking a different language and in one conversation was swearing), lying on the couch with feet up, overslept 3 mornings and had to be woken up by family member, started her shift after having been awake on another job with another employer for 24 hours straight. This was the first aide assigned to us by Right at Home for a Monday AM through Friday AM shift. I asked her on Tuesday if Right at Home supervision had checked in with her to see how things were going and she responded “I have never had anyone from Right at Home check in on me.” • Aide # 2 (hired for 24/7 live-in care) Rummaging through drawers and medicine cabinets without authorization (money and jewelry were discovered missing after this aide’s 3 day shift was over), painting her finger nails and toe nails in the sunroom, asking me for help in using internet so she could apply for other jobs. This aide represented that this was her first assignment with Right at Home and she could make a lot more money if she contracted on her own. • Aide # 3 (hired for 24/7 live-in care) Asked permission to take a nap 2 hours into her shift because she had been awake for 24 plus hours at a previous employer, asked permission to leave while on her shift so she could go to the bank. After 3 weeks of this disappointing experience, we made arrangements for family to cover most of my mother’s needs and only used Right at Home for 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours at night to help with bedtime needs, while pursuing another agency to take over the in home care. I was not impressed with Right at Home management either. The clinical director met the first aide assigned at my mother’s house and said she would stay until both the aide and the family were comfortable. She was late arriving, asked for a tour of the house and then stayed for about 10 more minutes and left. She never called to check in to see if I was satisfied as a first time client. In fact, I had to call her 3 days later to express some of the concerns noted above. She represented that she would be evaluating the care plan regularly and making adjustments if there was a change in my mother’s condition. Over the course of the 6 weeks that we used Right at Home (until my mother’s death) there was a significant deterioration in my mother’s health, but there was never another assessment done by the clinical director. When we reported the missing money and jewelry to Right at Home management they said they would do a thorough investigation and let us know the outcome, report the incident to the Department of Public Health and make adjustments to the invoice for the services of Aide #2. Right at Home never followed up with us on the results of their investigation and did not make adjustments to the invoice. We hope, but do not know if they reported the incident to the Department of Public Health as they said they would so as to protect other innocent families. I could go on and on, but these were the highlights/lowlights of our very disappointing and concerning experience with Right at Home. I recommend you DO NOT hire Right at Home if you are looking for a reputable, trusting agency to care for your loved one.

I am very disappointed with both the aide they sent and the lack of communication on their side. Regardless of my specific instructions, I've had to micro manage daily tasks and appointments. We hired an aide to be our eyes and ears and she is almost as much work for us as if she wasn't there. We can not trust our instructions are being followed and I have to check up constantly. We are getting a new aide for Monday, hopefully she will be better.

I set-up an appointment time to meet with Senior Helpers to arrange care for my Mother-in-law with Parkinsons. Made an appointment and called back to conirm time, giving address and was assuredthey would be there, 6 days in advance, husband left work early and no one ever showed up. I called to see if anyone was coming to meet us for the appt. time, the lady I spoke& made the appt. with answered the phone, laughed and said was that appt. for today. We are simply glad that we saw this companies true colors early-on, would hated our parents care to have been the same as the first appt.

I was extremely disappointed with the caregiver that was sent to my house for my father. The meeting with the person to get information about my father and what we needed and expected went so well that I was very surprised. They got the schedule wrong to start with. I needed a daytime person and the girl they sent was for overnights. That was nothing compared to the appearance of the girl. She was in dirty clothes,had dirty hair and holes in her shoes. I would not have let her watch my dog let alone my father. I understand many people just hire people to take care of family members and never see them because they can't be bothered with it but I don't do that. The woman I spoke with to cancel the contract didn't even realize my father lives with me I suppose she thought I would never see her if she worked at night.

My wife has ALS and the new owner and Kayla came out to ensure they could provide the right care. On two occasions the sent out inexperienced workers. Not there fault as they were the scope and skill set required for my wife was not conveyed by the owners. When I called to let them not they really did not care and put no effort into trying to provide further help!