On 11-21-07, I contacted WillCare, a home-health staffing agency, to register my mother for services. I contacted this particular agency because Almost Family, the previous agency my mother received services from, gave notice that they were pulling out effective 11-30-07. Almost Family had sent an aide named Luz "Lucy" Crespo, who immediately demonstrated a sneaky and devious attiude by telling me she also worked for WillCare and begging me to not tell Almost Family. Otherwise, Luz seemed like a competent aide, and I wanted her to continue working with my mother through WillCare when Almost Family's term was up.
My entire experience WillCare continues to be a nightmare, but there's a third-party government agency involved, so it's easier to just tough it out than to keep switching staffing agencies. Luz took forever to return WillCare's calls about her assignment to my mother.
When she finally started on 12-10-07, (we needed her to start on 12/3), she wasn't on the job a week when she started asking about working on C'mas and taking days off in Jan.'08 for child-related reasons. The last straw, though, was when Luz asked to start and end her daily shift 30 minutes later on the pretense that my mom doesn't like wakening early. No harm, so I tried to arrange this with WillCare's Scheduler, with the stipulation that she keep me posted on what's going on.
Instead, the Scheduler and Luz made a backroom arrangement without notifying me. Luz showed up on Fri., 12/14 at 9:15 (after being tardy the day before due to another "unforeseen" kid-related event) and sat in the driveway for 10 minutes chatting on her cellphone, until I went out and asked if she was ever coming in since my mother was struggling to bathe and dress herself.
Luz became belligerent, argumentative and defensive in my driveway and front yard, well withing ear - and eyeshot of the neighbors and passerby, and continued acting out throughout her shift, in front of my mother. She pouted and sulked the entire time she was in my mother's home, yelling at me, pouting and sulking through her shift, and proclaiming loudly enough for my mother to hear, "I'm not a maid, I'm not [this or that]!" She didn't complete her duties properly, either.
This created an abusive and stressful atmosphere for my mother in her very own home. WillCare has demonstrated Z-E-R-O remorse or indication of corrective action. As a matter of fact, because apparently, Luz went weeping to the office and playing the "girl" card in not-surprising C-U-Next-Tuesdayesque fashion, WilllCare is more focused on how Luz was "victimized" as she mentally abused my lderly and frail mother.
In the six-plus years that my mother has been on Medicaid, I have yet to meet one social-service provider who has advocated for her. They're too busy rationalizings the incompetence of the staffing agencies and aides who are never held accountable or bear consequences for their actions.
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