Home Nursing in San Diego – The Advantages of Hiring an In-Home Care Provider for Aging Seniors

There are several advantages of hiring in-home care providers for aging seniors, some of which include price, the comfort of being able to stay at home, and your ability to more directly manage their care.

The American Elder Care Research Organization calculates the average cost to stay in a US nursing home for one year at ,680. Providing an in-home care provider at the skill level that is appropriate for the help that they need is another option.

Home health aids and certified nurse assistants (CNAs) can come and spend time with aging seniors and help them around the house. They can help prepare meals and do laundry and help transport them back and forth for doctor visits. This is a good option when non-medical assistance is needed. These services can be arranged by the hour, by the visit or around the clock.

But if the elderly parent is has a chronic illness or is recovering from surgery or an injury, they may need additional medical supervision or skilled nursing. As the need for medical attention increases, so does the cost per hour, which and can range depending on location and the client’s medical needs.

Being able to remain at home is a huge advantage for aging seniors. If you have lived in a home for decades it becomes your sanctuary. You have created many happy memories there and to have to pack up and move away and get used to a new environment can be immensely stressful. Whether home health care providers come and go, or stay around the clock it can be a great benefit for the elderly to be able to stay where they feel more independent, comfortable and safe in an environment that they know intimately.

Another important aspect of being able to remain in the home is their ability to keep their pets around. If a person has a beloved pet that provides companionship and affection, this can really help improve their morale and their outlook on life. Being able to stay in their home and keep their pets can be a real life line for an elderly person.

Being able to carefully manage the health care decisions for your loved ones is another important advantage to allowing seniors to be able to remain in their homes. If a parent is away at a nursing home, you lose the ability to care for them as well as you might if they were living in their own home. In addition, if they are at home they have daily communication with care givers and medical staff. They can get regular updates on how the individual is doing everyday.

In-home care providers such CNAs, home health aides and nurses provide excellent care for aging seniors when their family members are not able to care for them directly due to job responsibilities. Taking the time to research the various options will help you choose the best level of care for the aging seniors in your life.

Before starting Gilbert Guide, I was unaware of the issues that come with finding an in-home caregiver. As it turns out, I wasn’t alone. A lot of people think that you just open the phonebook, pick up the phone, say what you want, and the senior homecare provider just shows up. If you’re unhappy, the company replaces the person. That scenario doesn’t necessarily work all the time. Figuring out who is actually on the other end of that phone is trickier than most people think. And what muddies the water even more is that you can unknowingly open yourself up to certain liabilities and responsibilities, depending on how you choose to find a senior care provider.

I have learned the ins and outs of finding senior care and I want to simplify the process for you, because had I begun the process on my own, I would have encountered a great deal of frustration–much of which is avoidable and entirely unnecessary. Although I was surprised by the subtle nuances, there are some key differences that I can point out that will make you a more astute searcher when it comes time to find a senior care provider.

Years of corresponding with National Private Duty Association members and speaking with the average consumer have helped prepare me for discussions on the primary issues that you will encounter when searching for, hiring, and working with the right senior homecare agency. Use the following senior homecare options as you would any roadmap to ensure that you find a senior care provider that’s right for you and your loved one.

Find a Senior Care Provider from Many Options

There are three types of senior homecare options: full-service agencies, referral agencies, and private-hire caregivers. While the first two include necessary services such as pre-screening and reference checking, the third option leaves the door wide open when you want to find a senior care provider, meaning you are responsible for most, if not all, of the required duties of being an employer.

Full-service agencies cover many of the important aspects in hiring a caregiver, such as pre-screening, checking references, providing worker’s compensation, handling payroll taxes, and carefully monitoring and supervising caregivers that are placed in a home.
Referral agencies take care of the initial aspects of the in-home care process, but once you find a senior care provider through the agency, your business relationship ends there and you are responsible for the rest. The referral agency will pre-screen and check references but does not supervise a caregiver in the home. However, you will be required to insure and supervise the caregiver–as well as handle payroll, worker’s compensation, and all applicable taxes.
Private-hire caregivers are found through alternate channels like personal recommendations, online listings, and healthcare organizations. You will be required to perform the background check and interview the caregiver yourself. Much like referral agencies, you will be responsible for insurance and supervision of the caregiver, worker’s compensation, payroll, and other taxes. Should you decide to find a senior care provider on your own by hiring a private-hire caregiver, ElderCarePay and PayCycle both manufacture payroll software that you can use to ensure proper payment of taxes during each pay cycle (1).

Bringing anyone into your home necessitates a bit of protection, and senior homecare providers are no different. Protect yourself and your property (or your loved one’s belongings) by securing records and valuables in a lock box, collecting the mail yourself, and reviewing credit statements carefully each month.

Remain Proactive Throughout the Process

When looking for the right senior homecare agency, find out whether they are a full-service homecare agency, a referral agency, or an independent contractor. Before calling a senior homecare agency, evaluate the following questions with the individual in mind. When will you need a caregiver in the home? What duties will the caregiver be required to perform? And, most importantly, what sort of specialized care will the patient need (2)? Now, it’s your turn to ask the agency a few questions, such as:

How long has the senior homecare agency been providing homecare services?
What is the agency’s screening process? Are references and criminal background checks required for each caregiver?
How are emergencies handled by the caregiver during and after working hours?
What is the supervision situation for caregivers in a home?
What is the agency’s policy on payroll and other applicable taxes for its employees?

After you find a senior care provider but prior to hiring the individual, ask to meet with him or her for a brief introduction. At this point, you can interact with the caregiver to see if he or she would be a good fit (3).

Hiring Privately Requires a Level of Commitment

If you decide not to go through a full-service agency (or benefit from the basic screening method from a referral agency), you now have quite a few responsibilities on your plate in order to find a senior care provider that will prove reliable. You will have to conduct an interview, a criminal history background check, an elder abuse and sex offenders registry check, a reference check (request a minimum of three), a motor vehicle record check, communicable disease screening (it’s recommended that caregivers receive a Hepatitis B vaccine prior to employment), as well as verify documentation of the caregiver’s certification (4).

Ideally, once you find a senior care provider you’re happy with, you should provide the newly-hired caregiver with a detailed job description outlining job title, purpose, duties and responsibilities, necessary qualifications of caregivers, Americans with Disabilities job specifications, supervision of caregiver designation, and initial training requirements (5). Have the caregiver sign and date this document and keep a file saved in a safe place. All caregivers in a home should receive proper training, with you demonstrating the details of each responsibility as well as tasks that must be carried out on a daily basis. Usually, not all family members or friends will be able to demonstrate all the necessary senior homecare requirements. Often, it is this inability to carry out some required tasks that prompt a family member to find a senior care provider and hire a professional. Ensuring that the family member or friend is the point-person needs to be done from the start, and what the family member or friend doesn’t know the caregiver should. In the case of an agency hire, however, the supervisor will be able to determine what exactly the care recipient needs and who can help. At all points, the family member or friend needs to be in the loop and needs to coordinate with the senior homecare agency and/or caregiver on a regular basis.

Furthermore, do not neglect training on OSHA regulations for tasks such as rigorous hand washing, dealing with human waste, and personal hygiene as well as providing supplies in order to comply fully with these precautionary cleanliness measures (6). Choosing to find a senior care provider on your own comes with many responsibilities, but you ultimately have more control in the decision.

Paying for the High Cost of Senior Homecare

One of the major issues concerning senior homecare is affordability. Searching and interviewing to find a senior care provider or agency (regardless of the channel you use) is a costly expenditure. With the annual amount of senior homecare costing an average of ,560 (7), it’s no wonder that few can afford this luxury. While homecare is most frequently a private pay situation, there are options, such as paying with long-term care insurance policies or even finding a trusted family member or friend to watch over the elderly individual. Make sure you research your senior homecare options fully before making any decisions though. Become more informed, be proactive, and, above all, be firm and prepared when making decisions to find a senior care provider. This way you’ll ensure that you’ve made the best choice!

Sources

1. http://www.gilbertguide.com/2008/02/11/home-care-differences-between-full-service-agencies-private-hire-and-referral-agencies/
2. http://www.gilbertguide.com/2008/02/11/step-1-of-hiring-a-homecare-agency-crucial-questions/
3. http://www.privatedutyhomecare.org/sections/patients-caregivers.php
4. http://www.privatedutyhomecare.org/downloads/HIRINGLEVELOFCARE.pdf
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. http://www.christinedecorte.com/ltc3062.pdf

There is perhaps nothing as stressful and the role of a care giver that is a senior family member, someone that is rehabilitating from surgery or an injury, a veteran or one of many other reasons one would need a care giver.  The care giver is usually so involved in the job of care giving that there is seldom any time for ones self. Kindred Home Care in New Brunswick, Canada offers respite from care giving by providing home care services to your family member.

Some of the services they provide are: house cleaning, respite for the care giver, companionship, overnight and weekend services, meal preparation, errands, baths, medication reminders, foot care and more.

The Department of Social Development also calls on Kindred Home Care for services in training families and individuals to gain understanding through self awareness, mentoring, community programs for individuals, techniques and training regarding coping for those with disabilities, support for foster families as well as transportation to court, school, after school activities and more, including twenty four hour crisis intervention.

Kindred Home Care has another branch of services called the St. John Home Care. Like Kindred Home Care, St. John Home Care provides the best home care services possible with both consistency and respect. These home care providers enhance the quality of the life of the people they serve.

Changes in rules and regulations are inevitable and the laws governing the home care providers have changed many times over the last twenty years. Kindred Home care and St. John Home Care have kept up with these changes and provide the very best home care they can. Their staff is available to you twenty four hours per day throughout the year.

It is a well known fact that most elderly people do not like a lot of strangers about their house. Kindred Home Care assigns one person to each individual in order that they can get to know each others attitudes, personalities, like and disliked. This type of assignment eventually makes the worker a friend.

Kindred Home Care has made the statement that “the warmth of a home is not measured by its internal temperature but by the nurturing and care of the people who enter its doors.” This statement is more of a motto with Kindred Home Care because it is the way that they perform they home care duties. Kindred Home Care offers short term and long term care and provides that care with compassion, understanding and dignity.

If you are a care giver ready to burn out and in need of a respite, call Kindred Home Care and find the person that is most capable to care for your loved one.

Find a home care service that will treat your loved one with respect, understanding and dignity – long term care.