At Home Care - How to Find?

BrownSparrow

How do I find at-home care for my parents? One has VD and the other hasn't been formally diagnosed but definitely has cognitive issues.

I live a few states away and it makes me uneasy to hire someone and not be there to oversee. Not to mention that my parents don't think they need any help and don't want strangers in their home. 

Plus they live in a small town.

The GP is no help. I had already asked him if he knew of any local resources and he didn't.

M1

My bet is you'd have more luck asking the nurses in his office than the GP himself.  Or if there's a local nursing home, they might have a word of mouth network.  Might be easier to do in person though than by telephone.  And you're right, oversight will be difficult.

Fad marie

To find in-home care for my mom, I used care.com to post a job ad.  If I'm remembering, it was relatively inexpensive to post an ad for a brief period of time.  I liked the variety of caregivers that I saw on their website, and we are very happy with the woman that we hired to come to my parents' house M-F for 3 hours/day.  She's been working for us for 2 years now.

harshedbuzz

I wouldn't attempt long distance caregiving without engaging a geriatric care manager who likely can call on resources.

BrownSparrow

Thank you. That's a great idea to ask the nurses at the GP's office. I'm not sure I want to ask the nursing home. It got pretty bad reviews on Google.

BrownSparrow

Thank you. I have looked at Care.com but didn't know I could post an ad. I'd rather have the stability of the same person each visit. I'm not sure an agency could guarantee that. I thought I'd set up a few interviews with candidates when I'm at their house in a few weeks.

BrownSparrow

The nearest geriatric care manager is 2-3 hours away.

Cynbar

Your parents should have a senior center/council on aging somewhere close by, if not in their small town. Call them for info. Many employ an Outreach Worker who can be a wealth of information on local resources. At the least, get some names of home health care agencies who do private pay (insurance likely won't cover this but that's another whole topic.) Call and see what they can provide before presenting it to your parents. There are also private independent caregivers in most places, but they work on their own and you don't have any protection, agency workers are bonded, insured and supervised. Usually families start small with home care to let their parents adjust slowly. You will get suggestions here on how to talk them into it, start another thread on that once you have secured the help.