Homecare Services

Free! Simply visit How to Hire Home Care to request this 17 page booklet written by Barbara Mascio, founder of Senior Approved Services.

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What you can expect

In home care services are also popular with new moms. Bringing a companion or aide in to the home to help out after a new birth for even a short term period is an excellent idea for both the new mom and her family.

Homecare companies vary in price, contract agreements and accepted form of payments. Some accept insurance, Medicare, Passport or Options, while others are self-pay.

Each home care company will offer minimum services, which can vary from one to four hours per day. Some companies will offer up to twenty four hour care and even live-ins.

Private Hire vs Homecare Companies

The advantages of going through a service or company vs hiring privately are many.

• The home care company is the employer of the aide or homemaker, not you.

  The service pays for workers compensation, pays employment taxes, and covers the employee with insurance and bonding.

• Should the aide or homemaker assigned to your family need a vacation or have to call off due to illness, the service has alternative back-ups ready to go.

• The service interviews and screens each candidate. Background checks, police records, FBI records, fingerprinting, reference checking and so forth are conducted and paid for by the service, not you.

• Even though the aide or homemaker is working one-on-one with your loved one at home, most services provide supervision. This means that a supervisor, normally an RN, will visit the home while the aide is there to ensure the care is being provided as expected.

• You have the opportunity to 'try' a person out, if you don't care for this person, the agency will have alternatives for you.

• Most reputable services offer ongoing training for their aides and homemakers.

• The aide or homemaker has a supervisor and a full support staff to call upon should they need assistance.

What to Expect

There are homecare companies that offer homemakers and companions as well as nursing, aides, therapies and other skilled care.

When selecting a non-medical homecare service, you can expect assistance around the house, meal preparation, light housekeeping, laundry, companionship and some will offer incidental transportation services. You should not expect this person to perform heavy-duty cleaning (windows, scrubbing floors, moving furniture, garage and attic cleaning) For those types of occasional needs, a maid service is more appropriate.

A homecare service licensed as a medical home care provides you with nurses, nursing aides, physical therapists, occupational therapists, as well as homemaker and companion services.

Both medical and non-medical home care services often times offer specialized training to their staff to work with seniors that are depressed and those with forms of dementia.

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