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AGING
with an
Attitude
Finding an
Independent
Contract
Caregiver
I
n the last issue, you learned how to
gather information to prepare to help
Mom or Dad continue to stay at home,
with assistance. In this issue, we will touch
on finding the right independent contractor
caregiver.
Your budget and status will be critical to
figuring out whether it is best to work with
an agency or an independent contractor to
care for your parent(s). If you have a finan-
cial advisor and/or a lawyer, and have assets
to protect, you might involve them in the
decision process.
• Medicare will not pay for “private duty”
home health care.
• The Veterans Administration Home
Healthcare benefit requires that you go
through an agency. (If you are financ-
ing home health care with the Aid and
Attendance Benefit – you can hire an
independent contractor or use an agen-
cy.)
• Most Long Term Care Insurances require
that you go through an agency but some
allow independent contract caregivers.
Make a phone call.
Let’s discuss how you should screen inde-
pendent contractors should you decide you
prefer to work with them over agency-paid
caregivers.
By Dorie U. Sugay
Dorie Sugay is the Executive Director
of Visiting Angels, a company that
provides living-assistance services to
seniors and adults-in-need who wish
to stay in their own home or receive
one-on-one care within a facility.
This article is for informational and
educational purposes only. It was
written independently of Visiting
Angels.
78
• Make a list of what you would like your
caregivers to be capable of, values you
want them to have. This will guide you
as you screen them. For example: if your
Mom has dementia, do they have edu-
cation and/or experience working with
dementia? Communicating with someone
with dementia requires a skill. Are they
the type who would engage your parent
rather than texting when their tasks are
done? How well will they respond to an
emergency situation?
• Make sure you interview candidates thor-
oughly. Employment from 2012 to 2014
does not mean they worked for two years!
How many hours a week did they work?
Did they work continuously? They could
have worked 1 day a week for 2 years!
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015
Explore gaps in their employment history
– the answer may give you a tip on how
they think, what their values are. A com-
ment, “I didn’t want to work more hours
because I was going through divorce and
wanted a larger spousal support,” should
make you step back to ponder. Don’t let
your personal feelings win them empathy
when it isn’t warranted. Read between the
lines, what values are embedded in their
words. Are their answers making sense?
They left one job for better pay and yet
they did not work for 3 years. Pay atten-
tion! Don’t believe everything on a piece
of paper because someone is likeable.
Learn how to screen people well.
• Check their references. Do not just call
the former elderly client. Ask for the
names of their children. Seniors tend to
feel bad about sharing information about
issues, they feel bad about hurting the
caregiver’s chances for landing a job, but
their children tend to be more up front.
The Baby Boomer generation, for exam-
ple, tend to reward for good performance,
and believe in the concept of “citizenship”
– a responsibility to others.
• Don’t assume that because they were with
someone you know, that they did a good
job! Ask questions. We ran into a charm-
ing woman who has committed financial
abuse but the deed was not discovered
for years. A second family who knew she
was with that client for years but did not
know about the abuse, hired her when
the former client died. That family expe-
rienced her abusive approach, but she had
such an influence on the second client
that she was able to stay there till he died
and a third family who only knew she
had long term employment with these
two clients hired her, until her secret was
discovered and her stay with the third cli-
ent was short-lived. We later heard that
she has gone on to another family who
was impressed with her long term
assignments. Beware!
• Background checks are critical. As with
everything else, there are different levels
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