Last week, we ran a couple blogs about things you might not know about different types of senior care. We included assisted living and nursing homes in this list. For the sake of fairness, this week we will look at in-home care and hospice care. Today we will take a look at in-home care, and then hospice on Friday.
In-home care comes in a variety of types, but there are two main different ways in which it breaks down when it comes to the application of that care. Your caregiver can be an independent worker, not affiliated with a company, but rather working as a sort of freelancer. These people are often very well intentioned, but they don’t always provide the best care that there is. They might have some sort of professional training, but if they are acting in an independent capacity, there’s no way to guarantee that this has occurred. This is true even if they are referred to you through a referral or satellite service. These often act more as advertising firms than as caregiver services as the caregiver often must pay to have their referral placed, or they pay the referral a portion of what they earn thanks to the referral. As you might have guessed, this has created a system where those that are not fully trained or even have ill intentions can make money. The vast majority of people that go through these do not fit into this category, but the problem is that you can’t know that for certain until it is too late.
Rather than put the people that you love at risk, we recommend that you go through a professional caregiver service. This is the second main type of caregiver that exists. Ideally, you would want to make sure that all caregivers employed by the company are insured and bonded, in addition to their training. You especially want emergency training. These are all things that you never ever want to have to use, but if something were to happen, you’d much rather that the skills and resources to keep your mom or dad safe were in place well ahead of time. Going with a professional service like this allows you to weed out those caregivers that are not fully qualified to help your family, and it prepares you in the event that something were to go wrong. It gives you a higher likelihood of a best case scenario, and it minimizes the damage that a worst case scenario would inflict. Going with a professional caregiver service is the smarter choice.
You should also keep in mind that some in-home caregivers are more expensive than others. And a high price doesn’t necessarily equal a high quality of service. You will need to put some effort into finding the perfect service for your family, but that effort will be well worth it. Think of it as a time investment upfront. You put in a few hours finding a great caregiver for your parent, and you save time, stress, and money down the road.
Alice Carroll says
I agree that there are a lot of risks that would be alleviated when hiring a professional in-home hospice care provider for my grandmother. She has been having a hard time doing her daily activities such as light exercises and watering her plants. Having someone to watch over her to make sure that she’s not overexerting herself would be ideal.