First Steps
Hiring care in the home can be complicated. Even the initial decision of who and how to hire can be divisive. Even we differ in our opinions and experience of arranging care, and we share our views in our book “Aging with Care: Your Guide to Hiring and Managing Caregivers at Home.” Amanda relies on licensed agencies to serve her clients, while Leslie tends to favor reliable and recommended people from the community. There is no “correct” way to approach this for families who are faced with this decision. Some may choose to combine both agency staff and a privately hired caregiver to make the schedule work for their family’s unique situation. Overall, you will be better equipped to make a reasonable selection by being informed about the consequences of each. This can make the journey less stressful.
Leslie Eckford
We encourage you to find a way to discuss the possibility of home care with your elder family members long before it is needed. It is so much harder to find your way when under duress. Imagine a situation in which, in spite of feeling unprepared, you must go headlong into the process of hiring caregivers. You may be pressured by medical circumstances or crisis. Consider a daughter who makes a sudden discovery about how poorly an elder family member is doing at home. Others may be acting on the observations and well-meaning advice from friends, neighbors or landlords who report signs of decline. Making major, life changing decisions with a clock ticking (“We’ve got to decide where dad is going before he is discharged from the hospital this weekend!”) can increase the risk of making choices that you may later regret.
