Hiring a caregiver for your loved one can be very overwhelming. But fear not! This week, we are discussing how to find a caregiver, what to expect when vetting agencies, questions you should be prepared with, and more!
The first thing to consider is how your loved one is going to react to you opening up a conversation around seeking professional care. Keep in mind how they grew up and what their life was like as an adult. For highly independent individuals, this news might be offensive and accompanied by stern push-back, so taking a strategic approach might be smart. For others who are naturally outgoing or aren’t worried about having others lend a hand in their daily life, this might not be as much of a point of contention for them. Either way, consider how your loved one will best handle the news before delivering it.
Many families worry about bringing a stranger into their loved one’s home, and it’s not uncommon for families to worry about their valuables being misplaced. We recommend to all of our clients and their families that they make a list of all of the items in the house and begin hiding away valuables. Often, items aren’t stolen, but just misplaced when cleaning or just from regular use. Putting these special items in safe keeping will ensure they’re never lost and will not put your caregiver in a position to ever handle these items. We’ve seen instances where clients will offer valuables to their caregivers as a thank-you for their help; valuables such as multi-generational keepsakes. While our agency and most others have a no-gifting rule, putting away valuables before services begin will prevent such instances from ever coming into question.
We encourage our clients and their families to have a meet and greet with their new caregiver when they initiate services. Having a new person around the house can be a little scary, so we find it best for everyone involved in initiating services to be there together (e.g. loved one’s children, spouse, neices/nephews, etc.) to get acquainted with the new caregiver.
Another question we often field is what the differences are between hiring an agency like EPAGA Home Care versus a private caregiver.
The biggest difference is who is responsible for the employee. When you hire an agency, they are responsible for all of the legal requirements for an employee including unemployment insurance, worker’s comp insurance, tax withholdings, etc. Additionally, if anything ever happened to the caregiver while at your home, the agency is usually responsible.
If you hire a private individual to be your caregiver, you will be responsible for unemployment insurance, worker’s comp, tax withholdings, and any other employer requirement in your area.
The other large benefit to hiring an agency is that if there are any personality or logistical conflicts with your chosen caregiver, a new one can be sent in their place. This proves beneficial in cases of caregiver resignation; if a caregiver decided to quit without notice, it will be much easier to get their replacement from within the agency than trying to hire a new employee.
Hopefully this gives you a few things to consider prior to hiring a caregiver for your loved one! Let us know what other questions you have at thecaregivenpodcast@gmail.com and join our EPAGA Care & Share Facebook group to join the discussion!