It is certainly a strange situation where someone heads off to take care of a client and is not allowed to tell family where they are going or staying. What makes things even more odd is when live-in carers are directly told that they are not to share this information with their own families.
If you have trained with an agency, then this will have been covered under the Data Protection section, and you will have learned that there are some things you can share and others you simply should not discuss with your own family.
This may be one of the most grey areas a live-in carer may come across. It is certainly a question that needs to be clarified.
There are two situations where this needs to be discussed, namely working through an agency and working as a private carer.
Agencies have very strict policies on what and who you can share data with about your client. It is very likely that you will find they do not support you sharing a client’s address with your family under any circumstances.
The reason for this is because every client a live-in carer is placed at is a vulnerable person, and they are entitled to keep their data private. This can be for their own protection and to safeguard their own privacy. Any agency will support this decision, and should they find out that you have shared this with other people, may take disciplinary action against you.
Where this falls into a gray area is that while the agency may be comfortable with you telling your family that you are working in Salisbury, they will not want you to tell anything further than this. It will not be acceptable to give a complete address.
This brings us to situations where the live-in carer has arranged to meet a family member and must leave the house, catch a bus, or walk away before the meeting can take place. It also means that no family member can pick up the carer after the placement is over, unless they wait some distance from the house.
The flip side to this is that, even though you may trust your family implicitly, they may be overheard when talking about you and your client. If a burglary were to take place and it was discovered that you had shared that information, you may find yourself under suspicion.
Any agency will tell you that all your contact details are kept in their files and if any family member wants to write to you, they can forward your letters. Unfortunately, they often do this for a fee, but it does serve to keep your client’s data safe.
If the agency does not have a mail forwarding service and you want to receive post, you may ask the family if you can use their address instead of using your client’s address.
Where there is no agency involved, you may feel that it is important to let your family know where you are working, and this is a perfectly reasonable request.
You may find that family members do not want you to share their parents address and they may ask you to use their own. This is also a perfectly reasonable request.
If you are given permission to use your client’s address by the family or next of kin, it is worth having this in writing to cover yourself. In this instance you will be able to pass the address on to your own family under the stipulation that they tell no one else.
This is, and always will be, a very gray area and must be handled carefully. A vulnerable person has every right to have their data kept private, even though a live-in carer feels that immediate family have a right to know where they are working.
If you are allowed to use your client’s address, then do get that permission in writing so that you are covered, should anything happen afterwards.
The most important thing to remember is that a vulnerable person must always be protected to the best of our ability, even if it means using an external address to receive letters or cards from family.
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