ELDER CARE: Questions to ask?

The proceeding link suggests questions you may want to ask a home care agency.  I found the questions helpful yet at the same times I could see the potential problems.  I won't completely spoil it but I will list potential issues when selecting home care for a loved one.

1)  If you are in a situation like my mother and aunt are you may not have Medicaid and Medicare will not cover long term home care.   Not a primary problem but it sets up the following:

2)  A lot of agencies are expensive.  You may be able to get a friend or family member to assist with your loved one.  However, being that this person may be free or less expensive than an agency how do you do a background check?

3)  If you have to deal with an agency and you have limited funds you have to understand that you get what you pay for unfortunately. The more expensive agencies may pay the employees more and they may tend to get better quality of employees.  Key word is MAY.

4)  So if you are dealing with a lower cost agency what questions are you truly willing to ask?  An agency my aunt once dealt with charged her less ($14/hour) but sent her a pregnant worker.  My aunt at the time was almost 100% total meaning she almost needed total care.  Lifting is involved with her.   The young lady had a wonderful personality but my aunt was afraid of her getting injured.

5)  In Florida quite a few of the home care employees were ladies making less than $15 an hour.  A lot worked with no health benefits.  The lower your cost the higher your chance of getting an employee working almost for minimum wage.  And while that is not a flaw in their character they may not be the most qualified and may be taking the job just to make ends meet.  Most people with credentials go for the higher salary.

6)  Going back to the health benefits a lot of the ladies working for my aunt had no health benefits.  They had to work every day or not get paid.  This means you can have a sick worker assisting the elderly who quite often have their immune systems compromised.  But can you afford a home care agency that provides health benefits?


Just a few issues I came up with.  But follow the link and read the article.  It is very thought provoking and can still offer a lot of assistance



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