In home care for elderly

[Nonbryan 176]

Hitting that point in life and we need to start getting educated on possible in home care for the elderly members of our family.  Anyone have any do's/dont's/recommendations/experiences that they can share?  I'm hoping that we can find someone that will treat our family as we would treat them and we would like to avoid switching care givers every few mos.  If we could find that perfect person to stay on the job as long as they are with us, that would be preferred.

Location is near Corpus.  Need for now is someone to come in 7 days per week, 2 hours in the am and 2 hours in the PM to check in, make sure everyone is taking their meds, arrange meds, make sure everyone is eating, etc....

Anyone have any tips?  Precciate ya!

[Reagan1k 3041]

 Been there / done that.  3 resources come to mind.

Ask friends and family for people they recommend.  

Check with your church / synagogue for referrals recommendations

Interview home health services.

the issue you may encounter needing only 4 hours a day total but two trips is that a solo provider might not be a fit.  A full time professional would need more hours and the two trips @ 2 hrs each may limit their other work options.

That’s where friends or community referrals come in.  They may know someone who isn’t full time in the industry but is looking for a gig.

Short of that a service is your best bet and they can schedule their caregivers with multiple visits per day to get them to full time work without you being the full time employer.

there is no easy answer and it’s a hard deal. All you can do is the best you can and go with your gut. Be mindful of valuables, firearms, and bank accounts.  Secure that stuff as best you can.  

[Not that Bob 743]

If they have a long term care policy, read it. Most, if not all, have a waiting period and a degree of disability that must be met before they start to pay. 

[Nonbryan 176]

4 hours ago, Not that Bob said:

If they have a long term care policy, read it. Most, if not all, have a waiting period and a degree of disability that must be met before they start to pay. 

That is a really sore subject.  We all had a big sit down about 10 years ago to discuss this topic.  I planted seeds, watered the seeds, and nothing grew. So we sit her today and they don't have that LTC policy that would really come in handy right now.

[mdmost 43853]

20 hours ago, Nonbryan said:

Hitting that point in life and we need to start getting educated on possible in home care for the elderly members of our family.  Anyone have any do's/dont's/recommendations/experiences that they can share?  I'm hoping that we can find someone that will treat our family as we would treat them and we would like to avoid switching care givers every few mos.  If we could find that perfect person to stay on the job as long as they are with us, that would be preferred.

Location is near Corpus.  Need for now is someone to come in 7 days per week, 2 hours in the am and 2 hours in the PM to check in, make sure everyone is taking their meds, arrange meds, make sure everyone is eating, etc....

Anyone have any tips?  Precciate ya!

We investigated this for my mom but she fell a couple times and it was pretty evident that in-home wasn't going to cut it. She's now in an assisted living facility. Before she went there, I was investigating some in-home options through her long term healthcare plan with Genworth. They gave me a good reference who was helping me look for in-home help. It's called Carescout. I was working with them to find some good options for in-home nursing and even someone who could maybe stay overnight. They were starting to get me a list similar to what you're looking for when my mom had her last fall. You might give them a look. It seemed to be a free service. https://www.carescout.com/#tab1-tab. You can also call them as well and speak with an agent which is what I did.

One thing I'll share regarding meds, you won't get that through an adult care service. You'll need a Registered Nurse to be the service provider in order to be able to have them dispense medicines and it might cost a little more. I don't believe an in-home person can touch the medicine even to make sure they've taken it unless they're an RN. Now if you can ensure someone is putting the pills in the dispenser every week then you could probably get by with someone who's more of a sitter for your family member. My mom wasn't in a position to ensure she had the right pills and couldn't cook or clean for herself due to balance/nerve issues. She's a lot happier in the assisted care facility now.

Good luck. It's never easy but this is sadly the natural order of things. 

Edited July 4, 2020 by mdmost