I’m so frustrated. I work between two “residential facilities” (group homes) for adults with mental illnesses. I am in charge of handling all of their appointments. In one of the homes, there are several individuals with extreme hygiene problems (urinating on themselves, the floor, the walls, etc, for example) and we are not allowed to make them or not make them do anything (such as shower), because these are homes for independent people (yeah, right. What a joke.). There is one resident who NEEDS to be in a nursing home. He is elderly, had a stroke recently, and has autism and a mental illness. He has a problem where he defecates all over the home. My coworker was told he had to clean the feces that was in the bathroom, the hallway, on his bed, etc. He refused and, after months of him taking a stand, my supervisor FINALLY began the process of having this client moved to a nursing home. However, my coworker was moved to a different home, and they’ve been having random employees cover his shift. Recently, I’ve been being told I need to cover a few hours here and there (normally, I am free to go in between the two houses as I please to handle appt stuff). Well, the other day, the client shit all over the bathroom. Explosive diarrhea. I told my boss I was no longer comfortable covering shifts at that house. She seemed to understand, but is now texting me at 10 pm saying I must cover half of the shift there tomorrow. I’m refusing, but it’s so messed up. They won’t give us any PPE besides basic plastic gloves and regular masks, and she knows I have a high risk pregnancy and should not be exposed to any dangerous pathogens (nor should anyone).
Also, another issue is that I’ve been doing the job in which I handle everyone’s appointments for nearly a year, but my bosses won’t let me sign that contract because they want to be able to make cover these in-home shifts. They’ve quite literally said that. I was only keeping this job for the benefits, but now I have Medicaid, so I’d love to see them fire me for refusing to work in a biohazardous home.