I'm just trying to figure out if this is typical...
We've hired a geriatric social worker to help us navigate short/long term planning for my mother (recently diagnosed with dementia). I've had three meetings with this case worker so far. She's a perfect fit for my mother but personally I find her quite tedious.
For starters, she's always late to our meetings by a good 20-30 minutes. She also has a tendency to try to reschedule our meetings within an hour or so of the originally scheduled time. I've had to give her information repeatedly. She forgets about medical appointments that she's set up for us.
She's certainly knowledgeable and, again, great with my mother directly. But I'm juggling a very demanding full time career (that's paying for all of this), in addition to parenting the schedules of little kids, my husband's work commitments, etc. I find myself constantly having to say to her, "No, we can't adjust our schedule on short notice today. You need to get here now."
A friend suggested that maybe this is typical of the industry - I'm on their clock, they're not on mine. Have any of you had similar experiences? Do I just need to deal with the unpredictability?
I think your friend may be a bit correct. However, it IS the SW's clock, her appointment that she made.....and is bringing this chaos to you by not keeping her own schedule.
One of the roles of a geriatric SW may be to help organize, organize a schedule.
How can this person do that if she herself is disorganized?
Imo, you just do not need this unpredictability.
If you think this person is a good fit for your Mom and she will be dealing with your mom a bit more than you you could contact her and nicely explained what you have indicated here. That you find her time management poor, you have a schedule that you have to keep, commitments that you must be on time for. And that your time is just as valuable as hers. You will be left with no option but to find another care manager that can adhere to a schedule.
You can give her one more chance to prove to you that she can set a schedule and adhere to it.
What would happen if she were to take your Mom to an appointment for some test that needed to be done and she were 30 minutes late..even 10 minutes late for some tests they would have to reschedule the entire visit.
I think it is time someone had this discussion with this care "manager" I would imagine she treats all her clients this way. (I doubt she will have many for very long though)
Things happen and we all occasionally are running behind, however, this sounds chronic and probably won't change.
As far as her clock, your clock, you are the paying customer and that is all that needs to be said. It is called professional conduct to arrive timely for scheduled appointments.
If she brings chaos, she is not doing her job. You hired her to lessen the chaos, not increase it.
I would interview others and specifically ask about your current issues, ie how often can I expect you to be late for appointments? Am I required to remind you of appointments? What specifically would cause you to try to reschedule appointments on super short notice and how frequently does this happen? And anything that you feel should be addressed.
A good fit needs to fit every single person involved or it's not really a good fit.
Come back and let us know how you deal with this. Best of luck getting it sorted out.
Sit down with GCM and explain this isn't working for you and she needs to fix this or you will have to get another. It sounds like GCM gets along well with mom, very important. How long has GCM been working with mom?
I don't know what your options are, if there's another social worker available to help manage your mom's case, but unless you take action this behavior will continue. Either politely say something to her or see if you can find another social worker.
Regardless of who is on whose clock, she's always late and she tries to reschedule at the last minute. That's not okay.
If it's a private SW you are paying, then she should be charging enough to pad out her schedule with gaps to make sure appointments are on time. If she's a SW you've been assigned, then she probably can't. Things are unpredictable in SW. Things happen.
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