When you have someone elderly in your home who needs proper care because of age and/or chronic illness, you might want to consider to hire in home senior care services. They range from skilled care offered by nurses or occupational therapist to household support like cooking, cleaning, running errands etc. When it comes to hiring one, you need to set a few ground rules.
- Job description and household rules
First things first, you need to perform an assessment. The more specific you can get on the needs of the elderly like physical, medical and emotional, the better you can assist the in-home senior care service provider. Household rules are an important consideration as well. This includes rules like no smoking, doors locked at all times, alarm system fully armed, being fine with the elderly going out and about with his helper, dietary preferences etc. Being clear on the house rules and interacting them clearly is the best way to let the in-home senior care services being delivered smoothly.
- Behavioral interviewing
No matter if you are employing privately, via a registry or just by merely interviewing the potential caregivers of an agency, good interviewing is important to a good and safe job match. Feel free to ask the applicants about how they have handled certain situations in the past. Also feel free to ask them open ended questions and get the candidate to express.
- Check with the references
This is as important as a normal job interview. Never rely on the reference letters that the candidate brings along with them. Verify with the references and feel free to ask them good open ended questions as well.
- Go for a background check before you hire a candidate
Go for a legitimate pre-employment background check for a nominal fee. There are many stories of sexual abuse, theft and much, much worse by caregivers of vulnerable elderlies. You must be able to confirm the identity of the potential caregiver and make sure there hold zero records of prior criminal history.
- Plan a backup coverage
Here you need to plan on how to manage when the caregiver is out for her scheduled vacation, unscheduled sick time etc. Many families tend to make proper arrangements with a home care agency to cover the vacation time. When there is unscheduled sick time or if the caregiver just quits, it becomes hard to make some prior arrangements.
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