J

Merla

AmandaF

I have a friend who hired one to facilitate her mom's transition to MC and ended up keeping her on two afternoons/week indefinitely, because she and my friend's mom hit it off so well. She takes my friend's mom on outings and also serves as a go-between for my friend and the MC staff, who are stretched pretty thin.

We hired the same woman to help with my mom's transition (to a different MC facility) but my mom didn't particularly connect with her, so we didn't keep her on very long. We didn't feel like we needed the extra support once we got to know the MC staff. And even though my mom never warmed to her, she was helpful in terms of having an extra set of knowledgeable eyes on the situation during those early weeks. She told us what was normal and what wasn't, and gave us language for describing my mom's condition to her neurologist, which resulted in a new anxiety med that really helped.

My friend found her through the MC facility where her mom is - they recommended her. We're in northern CA and she was expensive, $150/hour. She has a small staff of caregivers that are more like $40/hour.