Four Things to Know or Ask Before Hiring a Home Care Aide
Your mom and dad are having a more challenging time with everything from housework to shopping decisions. Before you hire a home care aide, there are questions your family needs to discuss. Here are four things you need to talk about during a family meeting.
What Do They Struggle to Do Independently?
Before you hire caregivers to help your parents, you need to know what they struggle to do independently. If your dad’s mobility makes it hard for him to get out of bed or stand up from a chair or sofa, assistance with ambulation is a service you’d want to learn more about.
Your mom’s doctor recommends she stops driving. Her reaction times are not quick enough, or her eyesight’s changed. She may want to arrange transportation and companionship services to ensure she still gets to go for drives and shopping trips.
Have Your Parents Set Up an Advance Healthcare Directive?
If your mom and dad haven’t set up an advance directive, it’s time. It’s also known as a living will in some areas. This legal document provides instructions if something happens and leaves you unable to express your wishes.
An advance directive covers things like if you would want to be given a feeding tube or put on a ventilator. It goes over things like whether you would want to be given experimental surgeries or
treatments or not. It also covers wishes as to organ donation.
Your mom and dad’s caregiver needs to know where to find a copy of the advance directive. It’s also essential to make sure the caregiver knows who the emergency contact is and if there’s a medical power of attorney.
Home Care Services Are Reliable
One of the areas of concern when it comes to home care regards a caregiver not showing up. No shows are not common, but it can happen if a car won’t start or a caregiver wakes up and feels ill. You don’t want someone who is sick going to help your mom and dad. Make sure you ask the home care agency about their policies regarding caregiver emergencies.
If it does happen, the caregiver alerts the agency, and a substitute caregiver is sent to your parents’ home. Once the original caregiver feels better or can get a ride, the substitute can leave to help someone else. No matter what happens, your parents always have a trained caregiver available to help.
Schedule Services by Making a Call
It isn’t hard to arrange services. Once the family meeting is over, call a home care agency and talk to a specialist. Ask questions your parents and other family members have about caregiver services. Learn more about prices. When you’re ready to arrange home care services, the specialist will help you take the next steps.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Home Care in Waxhaw, NC, please call the professional staff at Caring at Heart today at (704) 379-7510. Serving Charlotte, Statesville, Ballantyne, Mooresville, Huntersville, Matthews, Concord, Gastonia, Pineville and Indian Trail
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