Home Helpers vs. Private Caregivers

Home Helpers vs. Private Caregivers

If your elderly parents want to stay at home, then at some point, it will be necessary to hire in home care. Explain to your parents that hiring help is not a sign of weakness or “giving up”, but instead a sign of good common sense and realizing limitations. Most elderly parents need some type of home care assistant to help with personal care and activities of daily living. This might include assistance with bathing, grooming, dressing, meal preparation, feeding, medication assistance, walking and exercising, shopping and running errands, housekeeping, and laundry. Perhaps your parents can’t be left alone and need supervision, or perhaps you are the primary caregiver and need time to yourself. All of these are reasons to hire in home care.

In most situations, a nurse aide will be able to provide this type of care. Hiring a licensed nurse such as an RN or LPN is not necessary for custodial home care but rather only when skilled care is required. The question now becomes whether to hire this nurse aide through a local home care agency or hire a private caregiver directly.

Caregivers often prefer to be hired directly and paid in cash so that they don’t have to pay taxes and social security and don’t have to be legally qualified to work in the US. Families get the benefit of paying a lower rate, but of course open themselves up to liabilities if they don’t adhere to the law.

HOME HELPERS WAYS OF PROTECTING YOUR LOVED ONES AT EVERY STEP

Services – We do a thorough assessment of our senior client’s needs and provide them with only the services they ask for. Our clients receive invoices which clearly document the hours and services provided.

Hiring – We do all the hiring of our in home caregivers with a two-person team, and ultimately only hire people who we would send to our own parents’ homes. We only hire experienced caregivers.

Training – We provide initial orientation to all our caregivers, and ongoing training which can be one-on-one, or in a group setting. We have quarterly caregiver in-service meetings on topics such as Elder Abuse, Alzheimer’s Care, Hospice Care, and Emergency Preparedness. We have an incentive program for our caregivers to achieve higher levels of certification through intensive training.

Scheduling – We are responsible for all the scheduling of care, and have a person in our office dedicated to that task.

License – We are licensed by the State of California; Department of Social Services. (HCO# 434700008)

Background Check – We do live scan fingerprint, SSN trace and Criminal background checks through The California Department of Justice on all caregivers.

TB Clearance – All of our caregivers have TB clearance certificate.

Supervision – We provide ongoing supervision of our caregivers to ensure the client is satisfied and the caregiver understands their responsibilities.

Back Up – Should a caregiver call in sick or need to be replaced, we will handle a backup caregiver or provide a replacement. We always have more caregivers than we need at any time, specifically for this purpose.

Taxes – We are responsible for all payroll taxes and unemployment insurance.

Malpractice – We have professional liability insurance and are responsible as the employer.

Employee Injuries – Our employees are covered under our Workers’ Compensation policy.

Theft – Our employees are bonded through our liability insurance.

Our Senior Home Care services are available in the following cities: Palo Alto, Portola Valley, Los Altos, Cupertino, Saratoga, Campbell, Los Gatos, San Jose, and Morgan Hill