Reliable In Home Care for Dad with Alz (and a burned out mom)

sejalshah1977

Hello everyone. We are in a bit of a pickle. We are working with an in home health care company with mixed results. We have a woman who comes Tues and Thurs for 2 hours and she's wonderful and very consistant. Then we needed to increase care but she wasn't available. So we've had a revolving door from Mon-Wed-Fri. First we had a young woman who was amazing but went back to nursing school. The replacement they sent was awful: called in constantly and was on his phone all the time. We just can't get consistancy. This leaves mom in a big lurch and has a kind of trauma effect on her.

Anyone have someone they love and is looking for hours? We need someone Mon-Wed-Friday from 7:30am to 11:30am to help with dad's wake-up routine including toileting and showers. My parents are located in Lombard, IL.

Anyone have any luck with care.com? On one hand it seems good because read about what you need and then contact you to be hired. But, they have had many complaints in this area. But, I can't leave mom in a lurch any more.

Anyone have any solutions? Just trying to be a good daughter...

May flowers

I’m not in your area so I’m no help specifically, sorry. Hopefully, someone will chime in. For my MIL I found a small agency on caring.com that provided us with a mother-daughter team (they switched up weeks) for 24 hour care. It was perfect, they were both CNAs, very similar in personality and provided consistency. When one did have to call in, the other could cover but we did have some days another person had to come in and she was just awful. We told the agency to never send her back. Long story.

I hope you can find a good solution.

3GKS

I had luck on care.com. Once I posted what I needed I received multiple applications. I picked around 5 people and interviewed them all. Out of the 5 only 1 stood out. I think I got lucky and found someone who actually cares for my dad. Good luck to you and I hope you find some relief soon!

feudman

I too found some good caring folks on care.com. But you must conduct your own background checks, etc. Unless this has changed, care.com doesnt do this...its simply a site for connecting free-lance caregivers (with varying levels of experience) with those seeking such services.

abc123

Hello and Welcome to our family! Hopefully I’ll be helping my Dad interview caregivers very soon. I will be following this thread. You should get lots of good advice on this subject. I wish you well!

caregivinghelp

I went through several caregivers from Care.com. I finally just started asking nurses and social workers from numerous hospices and was able to find one. She is wonderful and my husband really enjoys her visits. There are usually a group of individuals that work independently and that is all that do. Good luck !!!!