r/caregiving

Ok, so, I’m not a full on CNA, just a simple in home caregiver. But I still think this might be the place to turn to for the answer to this question. Please tell me if I’m wrong to think this.
So I have a client who lives in a sober living house. One morning, I was in my client’s room with him (door cracked but touching the door frame), when his house manager knocked on the door, opened it without waiting for a response, and said “this needs to be open if you’re going to be in a room together”.
Now my question here is this: how am I supposed to provide private, HIPAA abiding personal care (such as showers or help getting dressed/undressed) if I’m not allowed to be behind a closed door with my client? I’m in Oregon if that helps.

I’m a newer caregiver and I’m trying to figure out if what I’m experiencing is normal or if I’m slowly being put into roles that aren’t really caregiving.

After my weekends off, I come back and nothing has been cleaned. Dishes are still piled up, doggy pads are left all over the house (sometimes even dog poop on the floor), and overall the home is usually messy.

For context, my client is not someone who is completely dependent. Honestly, I would say he’s fairly independent and does a lot on his own. Because of that, I’ve started to feel less like a caregiver and more like I’m functioning as a housekeeper/maid.

When I’m there, I’ll ask if he needs anything like food, drinks, or errands run, and 99% of the time he says no. So most of my shift ends up being me just sitting there unless I start cleaning on my own.

My routine has basically become:
- Clean kitchen and pick up dog pads when I arrive
- Sweep daily, mop M/W/F
- Make bed daily, change sheets M/F
- Clean bathroom on Fridays

That’s pretty much it because he doesn’t really request help and mostly does things himself.

On top of that, he will sometimes ask me to wash his dogs, and he also yells at them in a very aggressive way when he’s frustrated (saying things like he’s going to “strangle” them). If I miss something or don’t do a task exactly how he expects, he will cuss and get upset.

For example, he wanted me to dump his ashtray daily when I make the bed. He thought he had told me, but he hadn’t, and then said, “I told you to dump that damn ashtray every time you make the bed.”

I guess I’m just trying to figure out if this kind of situation is normal in caregiving, or if I’m stepping into duties that are outside the scope of what the job should be. And how do other caregivers handle situations where the client doesn’t really ask for care but still expects you to be there and do general cleaning?

OK, so I’m sure most of you are familiar with home care and the practices that often take place, for this specific client will call him (Sam) so Sam is on dialysis, can hardly bear any weight on legs due to neuropathy, is also experiencing short-term memory loss leading to agitation and stubbornness! My main concern for his safety and health is that he has bad ulcer sores on his bottom area, of course, in a really bad spot where feces is located, I explained to him and his wife that all it takes is a bit of feces to enter the open wound and cause sepsis, it’s a horribly fast route that you don’t want to go down!! I’ve seen it so many times I recommended to the family that throughout the night they alternate him on each side so that the bed sores don’t continue to worsen and can begin to heal with the proper medication and routine, his response was that his current routine works perfectly fine and he doesn’t need to alternate his body throughout the night, my question at this point is do I stop trying to convince him and his wife that it’s good for them do I just leave it alone and possibly allow him to decline very fast and cause his own death???