Friday, May 13, 2011

5 Things To Remember When You Choose Home Care

By Eileen Serapio


When you want your elderly loved ones to stay at home instead of some institution and there's no one in the household who can actually assist or provide care, then you must consider hiring a personal "carer" who can stay at home with the "caree". A lot of people nowadays choose home care over institutions or nursing homes because of its numerous advantages on both the caree and the family members. In most cases, home care is preferred by families who have more means of paying for private caregiving service and also those who aim to upgrade basic care services. But then again, when one opts for home care, what are the things that should be taken into consideration?

It's not very easy to hire someone to care for a family member. Though there are chances that close relatives also apply for the position, in most cases, caregivers come from agencies or may also be individuals who are actually strangers to the families who hire them. And since these care providers are strangers, it comes to a point when trusting becomes very difficult not only for the family members but also to the patient as well. Below is a list of some of the fundamentals when hiring a home care provider. These can be applied whether the carer comes from an agency or just an individual who wishes to apply for the job.

Establish the kind of assistance needed. To help you decide whom to hire, just first find out the tasks that should be done by the caregiver. This will help screen applicants and identify their rates, skills and areas of expertise.

Background check. It is necessary to know some background information about the agency where the carer came from, previous work records or references. Surely you don't want to risk the safety of your parents, do you?

Identify the services that should be provided. Tasks and services expected of the caregiver should be put into paper thereby, avoiding future disagreement.

Monitoring of the caregiver. It's not enough to sit back and relax while another person cares for your senior. Regular monitoring is a must to ensure that all the tasks are done and to know the condition of the caree.

Emergency Anticipation. Make sure to provide emergency phone numbers to the caregiver. Also make a list of To-Do's in case of any unforeseen trouble to prevent unpleasant things from happening.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment

Powered by Blogger.