Home Instead Senior Care

This home health care agency told me that I was not following the program as far as the nurses up to my apartment. These nurses would come any time they wanted. I told these people that they must come when my aid is in my house, so that I'm not alone. Carbini home health care agency didn't like this, so they pulled all of my services. I was left alone.

I am a 73-year-old woman and very sick. Then on top of that, my clinic mixed up my blood test with a person on drugs, This mix up has me on everything, cocaine and methadone, etc. Now they pulled some of my medications, because they, North General Hospital in East Harlem says I'm on drugs.

I worked at Home Instead Senior Care in Calgary, Alberta (755 Lake Bonavista Dr S.E.). I have never experienced a management like this in my whole life! Insecure owner and general manager who made a spectacle of me because I have hips and a butt - which they do not. Not my fault! I have experienced verbal abuse and sexual harassment in regards to how I am shaped, along with being called fat. These people should not be in authority, disgusting.

I worked for Home Instead Senior Care. They gave me a client only for Sundays because the wife was going to church and I came to find out the wife didn't go to church and she wanted me to clean her cabinets, pots and pans, scrub the floor on my hands and knees, and etc. I informed the agency about the things that she wanted me to do and they told me, "Well, what you're telling me doesn't seem that hard or complicated."

So when I decided to leave because I then realized that the wife only wanted a maid, Michelle, from Home Instead Virginia Beach, they told me that it's client abandonment and neglect and it may be grounds for termination. I told them I'm not leaving him the home by himself because his wife is there with him and she moves better than I do.

I hired a home health aide for my elderly mother who needed medication. The aide left 2 hours early on the first day, and did not show up for her afternoon/early evening shift the next day. There was no phone call and no replacement. I was charged the full amount by Home Instead on Staten Island, NY. My calls were not returned by their director when I said I wanted to file a formal complaint.

I started working for the Southeastern Wisc Home Instead office 2 months ago. I have found all of the office workers and caregivers to be very caring and loving people. We take drug tests and they do background checks to make sure we are worthy of taking care of very special clientele. I take great pride in my work and I know that the caregivers I've met are the same.

My "ladies" love the women who care for them. They are very accommodating, considering our requests to work or not work with certain types of clients (i.e, I have back trouble and can't safely lift one of my clients anymore). In these cases I am allowed not to be scheduled to do so.

Yes, I'd like to have more hours, but those will come as I work here longer. Yes, I'd like to get more pay, but the joy I feel when I leave one of my "ladies'" homes make it all worth it. It's certainly more rewarding than working for Taco Bell!

I was first hired to work with a very nice lady. That position worked out great, until the daughter started to verbally abuse her. However, she didn't live with the daughter, so I was able to calm her down. I then was given an additional client who no one could work with and many caregivers tried.

This woman lived in an independent living facility. She was a severe hoarder. I would do all I could and call the office almost on every visit with this lady. People lasted only one or two visits with her; she was extremely rude and negativeness came from her. She did not need money as she showed me her accounts and she collected food that could kill her. She had a mason jar of old lemonade she would keep and there, literally, was a glob of mold on the bottom of the jar that looked like a floating slimy blob. She would drink out of this. I was not allowed to throw anything away. She was a severe hoarder. I would get sick walking into this place from smells of urine in her bathroom bedroom.

I was made employee of the month with this company almost immediately. And once, I said that I could no longer work with this lady and this company unless I seen changes, they told me to bring my uniform shirts in and take a break, that it sounded like I needed a break. After begging for help and even from the independent facility, I received no help. So I brought my work shirts to the company and I started to work for another company. They now are giving me a bad recommendation as to me, not giving them notice.

I worked my tail off for this company. I worked with a client for six months that not one other caregiver was able to give. I got to the point when I left the hoarder's apartment that my legs buckled and I became very weak. I did report that to the office, again they didn't seem to care. I find this place very unprofessional and uncaring.

For the second time this year, an employee of Baraboo-based Home Instead was found stealing from a former Wisconsin Dells Police chief. Tara ***, 24, of Cazenovia was ticketed for felony theft from a vulnerable adult on Dec. 7 after stealing $1,613.24 from Frank *****'s bank account over 13 different occasions in October, according to the police report. *** was a caregiver employed by Home Instead who was assigned to take care of the 73-year-old Schoeninger at his home from December 2009 until he transferred to an assisted living center in Illinois in late October. Her duties included cooking, housekeeping, personal hygiene and running errands, such as picking up mail.

In February, another employee, Sarah *****, 31, of Mauston, was referred to the Columbia County District Attorney's office for forgery and theft after she wrote $18,000 in checks to herself from ******'s bank account and stole another $4,000 in cash from him. She did so from December 2009 until February. Because of that case, Schoeninger's subsequent caregivers were given Walgreens and Wal-Mart gift cards to make purchases for him, and had no reason to use his ATM card,. Schoeninger's financial power of attorney, Joanne *** ***, told Detective Jed ***** this last month.

****** was given a new ATM card in February because of the previous theft, but neither he nor *** *** ever activated it. According to the Bank of Wisconsin Dells, ******* activated the card in October. ****** told ***** she had never done anything like this before, and said she used the card after finding the PIN on a piece of mail. She used it to withdraw between $100 and $200 from ATMs at Viking Village in Reedsburg, Zinke's Village Market, the Bank of Wisconsin Dells, Kwik Trip in Baraboo and Reedsburg and Kaminski Bros. Chop Shop at Chula Vista Resort. She told ***** she would take the card and return it to ******'s wallet the next day. When questioned about the theft, ******* admitted to using the card without permission and apologized for her actions. She has since taken out a loan and paid full restitution. She said she stole from ****** to pay bills, and said she has a lot of financial problems.

Despite having a car payment and several tens of thousands of dollars worth of student loans, ***** said ******* admitted using none of the stolen money for those debts. Seidl noted that she was wearing a new winter jacket and had what appeared to be a Coach-brand purse. ******* is scheduled to appear in Columbia County Circuit Court on Jan. 26. As for *********, online court records show she was never charged for the forgery and theft in Columbia County. However, the case was prosecuted in Juneau County, likely because she cashed the checks at Oakdale Credit Union in Mauston. She pled guilty to two counts of felony forgery in August, and was sentenced to pay $20,998.34 in restitution. Two other counts of forgery were dismissed, but read in.**** was put on probation for two and a half years, had to submit her DNA, and ordered to undergo mental help therapy and an alcohol assessment. This was posted in Crime and courts on Tuesday, December 21, 2010 3:14 pm.

would have contacted home instead but i have no phone and they have no e mail address/ i was provided 5 hrs of service by SAIL as i am a disabled sr and having moved here in jan have been unable to get organized after movers just dumped unidentified boxes thruout my apt and i have difficulty lifting and cleaning. hired prof cleaners when i first moved in but they returned to brazil and europe. have tried to find cleaning people calling on ads or thru the office referrals. they wanted $20 an hour if they put anything away or gave me quotes toof $250 and up to get me in order.

i am on social security and cannot afford this expense so my social worker gave me the 5 hrs. went over everything with jody and she gave me a worksheet which indicated the bathroom to remove a large bin and a box in the hall which were to go on the patio so i could sort things as have given massive amts of clothing and bedclothes to st vincent de paul who will also accept shampoos etc. they were to clean up in there as well. then the bedroom make myt bed as i had anew set in package and put clothes in a bag for laundry and donations and to clean- in the living room again to remove a stack of boxes to the patio and clean up the kitchen included wiping down the refrigerator shelp i cant reach and cleaand i had dishes to rinse and put in tne dishwasher and clean the microwave my laundry was in the laundry room to washed and kitty litter to be tossed.

where do i begin? the worksheet left posted on my refrig miraculously vanished and all items listed were undone. was told sue saw a spider asnd became an entomoligist and sd it had to be a recluse so would not go in the laundry room so clothes and kitty litter were untouched. boxes and bins are still where they were bed left unmade as sam sd the cat had relieved himself on the bed. in his 10 yrs this has never happened and he quietly sleeps on the bed with me. the microwave was never touched nor was the refrigerator and stovetop not even wiped down and sam said she left the dishes for me---along with EVERYTHING ELSE.

and then the topper in that my shopper is on vacation in england they could run an errand for me as i had no food in the house for kitty or me. gave sam my only available cash and my food stamp card valued at $16 along with a note and my card. when she came back eating her mcdonalds lunch di not give me a receipt or any recap of her shopping. after she left found the recept in the trash and i didnt receive the yogurt, bread or eggs i needed as to the cash $3 was used and i,m sure that more than $20 was security at mcdonalds for sam's lunch. i am a diabetic and require little meals thruout the day.

i have NOTHING to eat and am writing this on an empty stomach with no source for food until thurs at the earliest. there was an available balance of 8.54 still remaining on my food stamps. all in all home instead was an entire void. they continuouly held chat sessions ouyside and in phone calls and much whispering which is not very comforting as it can create an environment of paranoia. i'm very hungry and not very happy with the entire experience. incidentally my bathroom basis wasnt even touched either b ut perhaps the thought of a spider in the apt weighed heavily on this chore too

For fear of being sued here is my own personal perspective.Beware of Home Instead Caregivers Agency! Do not be fooled by their own botox charged RN This company cares nothing about your loved one.They care only about the money you will give them.The first chance they get they will turn you in to DSS like they did to my family if you defy their own agenda. They are the parent and you are the child. If you care about your family member do not employ this agency!Beware!

Home Instead did not provide quality people to care for my Mother. We had caretakers who gave my Mother the PM meds in the morning and gave the AM meds at night. My Mother was a fall risk because of a recent stroke and one worker allowed the foot rest on a recliner my Mother was sitting in to remain up while she was helping my Mother get up and into her wheelchair and my Mother fell. The caretaker called my sister who drove to my Mother's house.

My sister found my Mother face down on the floor with deep bruising but thankfully no broken bones. Caretakes also left trash sitting out, gloves laying around, wet towels on the floor. My Mother told me one morning that no one had fixed her breakfast and I had to go get her breakfast at a Hardies. I asked the caretaker what time she got there that morning and she said 7:00 am. I told the caretaker she has to fix my Mother's breakfast because she needs protein. She worker never acknowledged me. Also I saw the same caretaker try to give my Mother the PM pills with her breakfast until I arned her those were the wrong pills.

My Mother was told to drink lots of fluids by her doctor to keep her from having another stroke so my Mother had to use the toliet very often. One caretaker told my Mother that she had a bladder infection because she used the toliet so often and this scared my Mother. My sister and all the other caretakers were also told by this caretaker that my Mother had a bladder infection. My sister told my Mother that she didn't have a bladder infection and the caretaker needed to be taking care of my Mother and making her feel safe rather than trying to "diagnoise" her and scaring her.

We had lots of other problems and always reported them to Joyce B.. When we began to have serios problems continually every week we called and told Joyce that if they didn't improve the quality of care workers they were providing we would seek legal help. They called and told us on a Friday that the following Wednesday they would not continue service. They also talked to other services (Visiting Angels) and told them about our complaints so we had to hire several private sitters on short notice. Joyce B. also said that the caregiver never told anyone about a bladder infection and my Mother had lied.

Avoid this company if you care about your loved ones. We paid this company $15.50 an hour to care for my Mother and we do not believe they provided the quality of care they indicated they would provide in their agreement. They denied that most of the issues occured and also came to my Mother's house and got the paper work that the care givers fill out so that we would not use the paper work against them if we sought legal help.

Promised to pay me a certain wage and did not also not providing my pay stubs.

I hired this company to care for my father who has alzheimers disease.. They DID not tend to his basic needs..changing him ,helping him walk. They were babysitters. One of them Georgina Yankey, was physically abusing my father, He kept saying a women was brutalizing him...My husband and i were there at my dads house one night and about five feet away when we heard a loud skin to skin smack ...my dad had brusies on him on other occasions..i was in denial that they were abusing him until i heard that slap...I thought they were caring like they told me..they lied..

The head of the local agency Robin stared coming over to help,,she told me i need to take my dad to the emergency room because he had a bad wound from diaper rash..THAT is becuase they were not changing him...Also i was there with my dad and Robin did not know i was there and she was scduled to arrive at 600 pm..no calls to me she showed up 45 mins late what if i wasnt there. OUTRAGE....tHEN MY DADS BANK CALLED AND SAID SOME WOMEN came in the bank WITH my dad asking for money for my dad .OUTRAGE,trying to steal money...Now they are sueing me for non payment...

I said i would pay for the caretakers that i thought were ok but not the abusers and theifs..they are sueing me..OUTRAGE..and to add to the long list of neglect,,I came over one time unanounced and this lady named Denice Bragg was sitting next to my dad reading while he was NOT DRESSED and there were feces on the floor right next to my father...and they are sueing me..can anyone help me with this court case ..it is the principle of the matter, these people are out there now pretending to care for people..my father served 30 years in the Army is this what he deserves....

BE AWARE OF THIS AGENCY: Home Instead Senior Care in Blountville, TN. The staff totally mislead me when I called inquiring about long term caregiver employment and what their services entailed, pay wages for long term caregivers, etc.. In addition, I found that their advertising for caregivers was totally misleading. The agency offers long term/sitter services but it is actually a cleaning/errand service.

Home Instead kept my wages for 4 hours of work stating that I had signed an Agreement form for a Criminal Background check and that if I quit before I worked 40 hours, my wages would be withheld. I quit after 4 hours work because the staff was totally dishonest with me about a long term assignment that I had been promised. Also, the staff was very unprofessional and rude.

I did call and write the owner about my ordeal. His response was,he would take what I had told him into consideration. The 4 hours that I worked for the agency, I cleaned, cooked and ran an errand. I would have been much better off to have applied with a local cleaning service. The customer that I was assigned to for the 4 hours wasn't happy with Home Instead either. She wasn't aware that anyone from the agency was coming to her home the day I started. Just hope this Information might be helpful to someone else. I sincerely thought Home Instead Senior Care was a reputable company but Home Instead in Blountville, TN will never be a place that I recommend for employment or services.

I was hired as a non medical caregiver in Feb 2007. I put in a home with two sister one that was very vilonent toward her sister and all caregivers and her family. I was not license to give medication but I was told that I had to give meds because the family never came to give them to either sister. The oldest sister became very vilonent that I could not bath her myself. When I was fired It allready had been 3 weeks since the oldest sister had a bath. I was told from the office that I had to just deal with everything it was my job. The oldest sister was very verbally abusive toward her sister and all caregivers and I saw her try to strike her sister with the telephone reciever.

I continued calling the office and telling them what was going on but I was told to deal with it. Homeinstead senior help doesnt care about there employee or the situation the caregivers are put throw. I was fired for reason that they have no proof of. they say I didnt follow company polices but they never care about me only the money they was making from having two sister in same home. They say I was screaming in the home only becasue I ask to be removed if you look at the record from that home they had more caregivers leave or just guit because of the situations in that home. Home instead senior has polices that are there responsiblitie to follow for there employees to be safe and they dont follow any of them. they have no regards for there employee there is no communication, the office doest want to hear anythig there employee says

Paul Hogan worked for Merry Maids and started the senior care agency after learning the franchise business model from Merry Maids- they are all about making money and their clients pay extra to support the franchise fee.

It is clear Home Instead is a franchise system seeking to profit from senior car.

I worked for them for several years (I was 52 until apx 55, and had a disability which prevented me from working except for P-T). I was not scheduled for work on Sundays (went to church). John begged me to work that afternoon. I finally agreed. Walking up steel steps at church, I hit my foot bone just right, and cracked a bone in my foot. Had to go to the ER. Of course, I immediately called work to tell them what happened. John Fritz was SCREAMING at me to go to the client's house. I tried to explain quietly once again...he interrupted by screaming. Told him I'd have the x-ray of my foot to him that week -- continued to scream.

At another point, due to disability, went to the doctor. Told me I needed to work less. I called 24 hrs ahead of next schedule day to work and told him that Dr. told me I needed to take off and had a note. He started screaming at that time again. Yelling at me that I had to go to the doctor to get a note -- told him I already had one -- continued screaming. John called me to work extra hours (12 hr shift). Told him I couldn't do that due to disability. Requested that I go ahead and go over there and he would have someone replace me.

I ended up spending 48 hrs there. I felt so sorry for the client. Her family for paying for care and I wasn't able to give her the attention I should have been able to give her. I made sure to see to her immediate needs but couldn't do the usual high quality care giving I usually give.

At the point where I described calling in 24 hrs in advance as policy due to doctor's orders, he basically fired me by telling me not to go to another of the client's homes (2 clients) until he called me. This was common with this company. They don't fire you -- they just don't call you to work. I called the client to tell them I was ill and wouldn't be in. They had other people who filled in when I wasn't there they did not like.

They offered to buy my contract from Home Instead (totally upfront and appropriate business manner). It was not my responsibility to pay Home Instead for my hire. It was the client's place to pay for my contract. And, she did. However, Philip Fritz (Home Instead) tried to file a law suit against me on top of money he had already received from the clients. I wrote back to the attorney for Phillip Fritz describing the treatment I had received. Told him I would welcome to see them in court so that it would be public record how he treated his clients and his employees.

This is a franchise that one purchases. I am sure that there are professional business people that buy with common decency behaviors towards their employees. Phillip Fritz and His Son, John are not.

We were mislead and got ripped off $11K within one month.

My Mother was discharged back to her home from a local rehab facility under the condition that she had someone with her in the home at all times, which my wife and I couldn't do as we live out of the state.

A social service worker recommended Home Instead as an agency which could provide someone to do this.

We contacted the local office and explained that my Mother couldn't walk, or make it to the bathroom by herself. However, she was very pleasant to be around, and slept 8-9 hours every night.

After being very vague about pricing over the phone. A representative came to my Mother house and said that we would need two caregivers to work 12 hour shifts at an hourly cost of $23.50, or they would report back to the rehab facility and my Mother would not be able to return home.

My wife and I didn't know much about homecare and agreed. The cost of care after two weeks was nearly $8K. Realizing that something didn't seem right I made some calls and learned that many homecare companies offer a LIVE-IN package, which would have satisfied the condition of my Mother's release for less then half the price we were paying Home Instead.

I feel we were taken advantage of, as the people we spoke with at Home Instead presented themselves as experts in this feild, and obviously should have known about the type of coverage we needed.

I was later told by a friend who is a registered nurse that we were paying for the most expensive type of home care, usually required when someone is dying in their home.

My wife and I had contracted with Home Instead to provide a person to go to my parents home in Alexandria, NH one time a week to perform some cleaning chores. 3-4 Weeks ago, they stopped showing up. No phone call, no E mail, no message or reason of any kind. They seem to be a very unreliable company.

My kind and loving mother (90 yr old), died in PAIN, ALONE and in FEAR without proper care and pain medications. Home Instead Senior Care was 24-hour service; but the Home Instead office changed caregivers every day, and only one caregiver had the legal right (CAN) to administer Narcotic medication. Hospice instructions in administration of pain medications were confusing. The Hospice case manger refused to instruct Home Instead personnel.. One caregiver told me my mother would cry out at night for me, her son, but no one called me. They told me they failed to call because my 94-year-old father with dementia /memory loss was in charge and signed contract. Caregivers would shut the door so they could sleep. Mother died in pain and alone--shameful.

WHEN I CONTACTED HEADQUARTERS AND THE ELDER ABUSE UNIT OF TORRANCE POLICE, NO ONE RETURNED CALL OR WROTE BACK. SHAME on police for waiting 18 months to investigate.

Mother died in FEAR, ALONE and in PAIN, After 18 months of writing and calling the police and APS... Today Jan 15, 2008 they agreed to open NEW case... and investigate all involved INTERNAL AFFAIRS AGREED TO INVESTIGATE A DETECTIVE FOR NEGLECT AND BROTHERS INVOLVED IN THE ABUSE... Home Instead Office should be shut down..

The Saint George agency is completely short staffed and mismanaged. They sent an inadequately trained staff member to care for my 82 year old mother with dementia and my 86 year old father .I have several horrible stories over the last 3 months but the most recent is my father had fallen and lay on the floor. It took a staff member over 5 hours to check on him even after the office manager was notified. My father ended up in the hospital... the company is horrible and if anyone is in Saint George - DO NOT USE THEM !

They sent a companion for my 86 yr old mother. The woman spent 3 -4 hours with my mother Monday and Friday. Her job was to drive my mother to her friend's home, take her out to lunch, etc. The woman was discharged from the agency because she alledgedly was found intoxicated while working in a nursing home. The agency never told me this.

This companion called me to tell me she was fired. Her words were slurred and she sounded drunk, during this phone call. Again, no explaination was given nor was I informed by Home Instead about the companion's discharge.

My issue with Home Instead is what type of screening to do they do before hiring? After all, the companion was driving my mother around possibly drunk.

Other issues - lack of communication regarding my mother's care (I live out of state and despite many requests regarding my mother's care, their was little communication). Their billing is also confusing and they keep raising their rates.

I worked as an employee for Home Instead Senior Care and saw things that should be considered illegal. Being that Home Instead is a Franchise, there are company rules, but Mr. Ersahm decided to mock employees by charging $3.00 counted against their paycheck each time that they did not call in their daily hours. The office of Home Instead had the hours recognized for the employee working, both in-house and with the client, yet they made this rule possible, only for profit.

This company also has also kept an employee working under their roof in a situation where an employee was told by a member of a family to drive him to the bank, whereby, he attempted to withdraw his Grandmother's funds. This employee instead of losing her job, was retained as an employee, but taken off the case and given even MORE HOURS (40 plus) then I was offered!

My 96 year old grandmother contacted the Home Instead agency to get information on their services. She contacted the agency for information only because she was concerned that she may need some help in her home if she became ill. The Agency immediately sent a representative to her home who pressured her into signing a contract for services she did not need. Also, the representative told my grandmother that her insurance policy would pay for the agency's services, knowing that they are not a licensed agency and most insurance companies will not pay for services from unlicensed agencies.

After Home Instead tried unsuccessfully to bill my grandmothers insurance company they started calling her and requestion payment. When they called they would threaten to attach a lien to her house if she did not pay her bill and also threatened to attach service charges. Finally, my grandmother paid for the services herself. However, she overpaid the agency. I have called Home Instead twice and requested that they mail my grandmother a check for the overpayment, they have told me that they "are sending the check today", however my grandmother has yet to receive it.