After hours with the aides

Sometimes aides and residents develop a strong friendship or attachment. This may lead to a resident asking an aide to take them out either after their workday or on their days off. Residents and aides may make plans to do things together unaware that there may be a facility policy in place which does not allow it. Facility administration might not want aides taking residents out on their own time. There are liability and safety issues involved.

Aides take care of residents and they also develop some sort of feelings towards them. It is almost impossible for aides not to empathize with the resident’s situation, particularly if that resident is young and will need to be in a facility for the rest of their life.

Over time after you move into a nursing facility the community support system usually disappears. Some residents do not have an active family to take them out. Others may not be able to go out on a regular basis.

Some younger residents may just want to have a good time even though they are traumatically brain injured or quadriplegic. Younger residents chat with the younger aides and no doubt wish that they could go to a weekend football game or to a club for a beer.

Younger staff cannot be blamed for wanting to help out either older or younger residents by taking them out for a dinner or just for an afternoon. It is very difficult to remain aloof and unattached to the aides. They take care of us when we are sick and at our worst. Devoted aides listen to us, know when we are having trouble, and many times a lasting friendship can develop from that.

So do you think aides should be able to take residents out on their own time? What are the policies in your facilities?