The new caregiver

Mom's new caregiver called me yesterday afternoon and we had a great chat. I am going to really like her, I think. She is so on the ball. She has a masters degree in healthcare and very easy to communicate with. Apparently the other lady retired (health reasons, it sounds like) so this new gal (K) purchased the business/clients from her. She said that the original lady sent out a text to all her client's family members telling about the change, but I never got it, so that is why I've been in the dark as to what has been going on. She also said the original lady had her computer crash awhile back and lost all her documents used to do her billing, so that is what is going on, as original lady is supposedly trying to get her computer files recovered. K is starting billing as of Sept and has also been working on trying to get all the clients family members contact info, as that was lost by the other lady, too. 

Anyway, she said she'd let the other lady know that I'm still looking for billing from June 20th to her last day in business and I'd love to pay her. I told her to tell her even if she just wants to do a close estimate so I can send her a check, I'm ok with that, too. 

K really seems to pay attention and I'm very impressed with her so far. I said that one of the things I really need mom to start having assistance with is showering and she agreed. I said I had asked the original lady to help with this and apparently after mom denied her offers to help shower a few times, she didn't keep trying, but never told me this and didn't pass on to K that showering was one of the things to help with. So, she is going to give it a try with mom this weekend and see if she can get her to start doing it twice a week, or at least once. I said I got her to shower 2 weeks ago, but it was a struggle and she finally agreed when I told her her hair really needed washing. I said another tactic that might work on mom, is for K to tell her that her daughter asked her to help her with this. She said she also has noticed at times mom will hang up dirty clothes back in the closet and I said she's also put just clean clothes back in the hamper. She said she's been trying to watch what she is wearing and if she finds it back in her closet the next day, she puts it in the hamper, but also said maybe she'll need to start adding in helping her to get dressed in the mornings, so she's getting clean clothes on, and I said that would be great and I'm ok with her adding in anything she sees mom might need help with. I also told her mom's pills she takes once a day, can be changed to a different time, if there is another time of day that works better in K's daily schedule. She said that time after dinner is fine. They have several to help with that and works good to do right after dinner.

She also said she is doing learning and classes, etc specifically for trying to help dementia patients, as that is her main passion. She is getting trained on ways to help outside of big pharma. Things like music, scents/oils, and cbd gummies (to help with things like agitation and calming them). One of her long term goals is to start her own assisted living care place for those dementia, as we don't have much memory care places in our area. She said that is something that is probably at least 5 years out for achieving.

I again made sure she knew I had the 2 cameras in mom's living room/kitchen area. She thinks they are a good thing and says several family members of other clients do the same. She said one of her clients fell in his bathroom last week, but no one knew for a bit because of course, no camera in there, but she thought maybe putting one in mom's bedroom, too, might be a good idea.