Everything You Need to Know: Hiring an In-Home Care Agency

When hiring a Home Care Agency to provide care for a loved one, it can be difficult to know what to look for. After all, you want to work with a caregiver who is highly qualified, kind, patient, and will care for your loved one the way you would, and that combination can be difficult to find.

Whether you have a parent with a memory disorder, or an elderly family member you believe will need some type of assistance, it is always good to be prepared and understand what to look for when hiring an in-home care agency.

Is Your Loved One Ready for Help at Home?

The first step in the journey of helping your aging family member is to truly understand when he or she is no longer able to safely care for themselves. Some common things to look for are signs that they are no longer able to perform the basic functions of living safely and reliably. It may be time to look into hiring an at-home caregiver if your loved one is unable or unwilling to do one or more of the following:

• Bathe regularly
• Prepare meals or eat nutritiously
• Use the restroom or clean themselves afterwards
• Understand or use devices/appliances in the home – such as keeping the thermostat at a reasonable temperature or turning off the stove when not in use
• Drive to the grocery store or doctors appointments (or if they get lost while doing so)
• Be reasonably mobile (and safe from falling) around the home
• Write checks and understand their finances
• Take medications on a schedule
• Simple household chores like laundry

Each situation is unique as every individual struggles with different mental or physical challenges as they age. Many people, especially those with the beginnings of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, or those who have been fiercely independent their entire lives, have a tendency to push back on your efforts to help, claiming they are independent and do not need assistance.

It is important to listen to their concerns, but it is also essential that you understand when your loved one can no longer be safe without external help. Make sure to discuss all of their options with them so that the person receiving the care can help make decisions in regards to what they are most comfortable with for receiving care.

Many people feel that if they do need to accept help, it is more palatable when it’s provided in the comfort of their own home. Having a personal attendant that can travel to your loved one, as needed, means they can retain some semblance of independence and autonomy by remaining in their own home with their own comforts, possessions, and memories.

Hiring an At-Home Personal Attendant: What to Look For

1. Professional Training

When looking for a home health aid you want to be sure you are hiring someone that has met state-set training requirements and is considered a professional personal attendant worker. Training requirements vary from state to state, but at All Seasons Homecare we make sure to not only meet local and Federal guidelines but extend training for our caregivers well beyond the minimum.

At All Seasons Homecare we offer ongoing training, continued education opportunities, and even a CNA scholarship program to our professional caregiver employees. When you elect to go with All Seasons Homecare for your loved one’s needs, we take care of making sure each of our staff members has the training required so you don’t have to worry about those details on top of the emotional strain that comes with taking care of an aging family member.

While home health aides are not licensed to provide services such as skilled nursing care or physical and occupational therapy, they can provide valuable insight and observation of a person’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being and keep track of any changes which they can then report to their client’s healthcare professional.

2. Schedule Flexibility

At All Seasons Homecare we provide hourly or around-the-clock care as needed. You and your loved one’s situation may change at any time, and we are flexible enough to adapt to your needs thanks to the coverage our caregivers provide. Our employees have flexible hours as well as regular shifts so they can assist your loved one daily, every other day, or whenever the need arises.

For example, if your work schedule allows you to help care for your loved one during the morning hours, our caregivers can plan to assist in the afternoons and evenings. Or, if you are able to provide care only on certain days of the week, our personal attendants can work around your schedule to fill in the gaps. This helps ensure that your loved one has consistent care with people they can depend on to be there on a regular basis. Trust and confidence builds as they learn they can rely on others to help meet their needs.

3. Caregiver Responsibilities

At All Seasons Homecare our personal assistants can help with the day-to-day activities of living. Help at home may include: helping the client to dress, bathe, use the toilet, and groom themselves. Our team can help your loved one by cooking basic meals, reminding them to take medication, or simply helping them move safely from one room to another.

Our caregivers are able to drive your loved one to doctor’s appointments or shopping, and support them while getting in and out of our company vehicles. As a bonus, our caregivers can also assist with some light housework such as laundry.

Our team makes sure to monitor physical and mental conditions of our clients, watch for signs of anxiety or depression, notate their level of exercise and their nutrition, engage with them socially, and call for help for any emergencies that may arise.

4. Dependability

Our caregiver employees are located throughout Contra Costa County and the Tri-Valley area of Alameda County, so you never have to rely on just one person in the case of an unexpected need. This is what allows for such flexible scheduling and last-minute coverage.

Both the hiring process and payment of our caregivers are handled through our agency so that you do not have to worry about things like payroll, taxes, insurance, and background checks. We are licensed by the state of California and provide thorough vetting of each of our employees so that we make sure we are sending the best at-home personal attendants to care for the people you love most.

We encourage regular feedback and provide evaluation of our home health aides to make sure the standard of care is not only met but exceeded. If you ever have any concerns you can call us immediately, 24 hours a day, and we will address the problem. We work carefully with each client and always do our best to match each patient with the caretaker who best suits their needs and personality.

Get Started Today

Contact us at All Seasons Homecare at (925) 363-4900 with any additional questions you may have about hiring a home health aide to provide care for your aging or dependent loved one. We pride ourselves on transparency, positivity, and providing an expert level of care so that each of our clients and their families have the support they need while going through this season of life.