Did You Find the Right Caregiver? Tips for Choosing Before You Hire
At some point, your parents will need more than a simple helping hand around the house. When that happens, your family will need to enlist outside help if they wish to remain at home.
For many who choose to age in place, that means hiring a caregiver on their own instead of choosing a traditional home care agency. If you hire privately, the largest hurdle to overcome will be knowing whether or not you’ve made the right choice.
Finding, selecting, and hiring the right caregiver is no small task – but it’s not impossible. Here at LeanOnWe, we've helped more than 1,800 families find a perfect match, and over the years, we've learned a thing or two about hiring an independent caregiver for your loved one.
Why Making the Right Choice Matters
“Choice” is one of the top motivators for those who hire privately.
When you hire an agency, you don’t always get a choice of who is in your home or who backs them up when they are unavailable. By hiring privately (as in, hiring yourself and managing the caregiver and back-up needs), you have the final say over who is in your loved one’s home and when.
With choice comes control, but also the added work of searching for, evaluating, interviewing, and hiring a caregiver yourself. For many, the tradeoff is well worth it. If you make the right choice, it can prolong your loved one’s time at home and vastly improve their quality of life, so read on for tips to hire with confidence.
4 Tips for Making the Right Choice
Once you’ve found a caregiver (or a few caregivers) near you, it’s time to evaluate them so you can make the right choice.
Hiring a caregiver can be intimidating, but we found there are four keys to making the right choice (and feeling confident in your decision). They are:
- Evaluate your loved one’s needs
- Ask the right questions
- Check references
- Trust your gut
Evaluate Your Loved One’s Needs
At the start of your search, take time to thoroughly address the needs and challenges of your loved one. It may help to make a detailed list of areas you need assistance, which could include:
- Driving to and from doctor appointments
- Bathing and dressing
- Light cleaning
- Medication
- Meal preparation
Don’t forget social and emotional needs as well — for instance, does your mother need someone who can engage in conversation and activities? By defining the scope of care needed, you’ll have a helpful set of requirements to present to a caregiver (or vetted network of caregivers) to help narrow down your options. Make sure to involve your mother in this process, too, as her input and comfort are key to finding the right caregiver.
Ask the Right Questions
Once you narrowed down your options, you then need to interview caregivers to make your final selection.
If you have never interviewed a caregiver before, it’s helpful to have a structured set of questions that cover both practical experience and their personal approach to caregiving. Ask about their specific experience with conditions similar to your parents’, their training in emergency response, and their comfort level with required tasks.
These questions might include:
- Can you provide the care my loved one needs? (Again, it’s helpful to have a list of needs.)
- What would your past clients say about working with you?
- Give an example of a stressful situation with a client and how you handled it.
- What experience do you have in emergency situations?
Check out our guide to interviewing a caregiver (including 20 essential questions) for the full list. Don't forget to address practical matters like schedule flexibility, back-up plans for sick days, and their long-term availability.
Check References and Run a Background Check
Even the best set of interview questions won’t cover everything you need to know. You will also need to run a background check before you hire. There are a few “levels” you should go through when checking the background of a potential hire:
- Check references: Check their references specifically relating to caregiving experience. Consider requesting both personal and professional references to get a more complete picture of the candidate's character and capabilities.
- Certify credentials: Ask to review the actual certifications or diplomas they have and make sure they are legitimate, original documents.
- Get a top-notch background check: Of all the background checks available, the FBI fingerprint background check is the gold standard. A fingerprint-based FBI screening checks for arrests and convictions locally, statewide, and nationally, and can only be done by a home care provider. It also verifies that the caregiver isn’t listed in the national sex offender register or the national sex offense arrest database. There are online background checks available, but they are based on Social Security numbers instead of fingerprints – not the proper source for criminal records.
Check out our guide to the right way to run a background check on a potential caregiver for more information.
Trust Your Gut
Once you’ve found and vetted a selection of caregivers, it’s time to trust your gut.
Pay attention to how you and your parent feel during interactions with potential caregivers. Does the caregiver seem genuinely interested in understanding your parent's needs and preferences? Do they display warmth and patience during conversations? Watch how they interact with your parent during the interview. Are they respectful, attentive, and engaging? If something feels off, even if you can't precisely identify why, it's worth exploring other options.
Struggling to Find Care? A Trusted Network Can Help
Even with these tips guiding your path, you still need to conduct a search for quality caregivers to interview and personally vet them.
That does not mean that hiring privately isn’t for you, it may mean that you could use a helping hand in your search.
LeanOnWe connects families in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with highly qualified and vetted caregivers. Our industry-leading screening process ensures only the best caregivers are in our network, and our 75-factor matching process guarantees the only caregivers you speak with are ones perfectly suited to your needs.
Hiring a caregiver may be one of the best and most important decisions you and your loved one make, and we’re here to make sure you make the right choice from Day 1.
There are 10 Things You Need to Discuss Before you Hire a Caregiver
If the thought of hiring a caregiver makes you feel overwhelmed, we recommend downloading our free guide (below) to 10 key topics to discuss with your new caregiver.
When working with a new caregiver, there are many potential issues to avoid and things you need to consider. Our free checklist will help you navigate these topics with your new caregiver – and set you up for a successful relationship.
Download the checklist to learn:
- How to set expectations with a new caregiver
- How to handle pay rates and extra pay
- How to set a work schedule
Click the button below to download the free guide and take the first step toward approaching the hiring process with confidence and peace of mind.
10 Key Topics to Discuss
With Your Caregiver
You'll learn:
- How to set expectations with your caregiver
- How to handle pay rates and extra pay
- How to set a work schedule
And more!
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