As someone who is fiercely independent, I never imagined myself living in an assisted living facility. For that reason, when I was diagnosed with a serious condition, my doctor recommended home health care. It was a little bit intimidating for me at first, but before I knew it, I was living at home, receiving the care I needed from the comfort of my own bed, and getting stronger each and every day. I had such a powerfully positive experience with home health care that I started this very blog. Read more about how home health care could help you or your family members.
If you have been tasked with hiring a home health aid for a loved one, then it is important that you be serious about the entire process. This is not a situation where you can relax and simply hire the first person who submits a resume. You need to make sure that you are hiring someone who is skilled at the task, responsible, and medically cleared to work as a home health aid.
So, with that in mind, here are some important things to put on a checklist.
Live-In Care Or Live-Out Help
The first thing you need to make sure you do is differentiate between a live-in and a live-out home health aid. If you are looking for someone to provide 24-hour care, you cannot interview people who only want to live elsewhere. It's important to screen applicants and only choose to interview those willing to live in the home with the patient.
Go With A Home Health Aid Agency
The reason that you should go with a home health aid agency when searching for a home care aid is that the agency will have done a great deal of the screening beforehand. This eliminates much of the legwork. You can simply ask them to provide you with resumes of people who are prequalified and are open to a live-in situation. These agencies will also be able to help you when it comes to obtaining medical clearances.
Make Sure Background Checks Are Conducted
You never want to have a home health aid live move into your family members' home if they are a criminal or have committed some sort of dangerous crime. This is why it's important to run background checks on the home health aids. However, these background checks are both expensive and also require legal documents. This is another reason why you should choose a home health aid agency. They are better able to screen people for offenses. They have entire departments set up to run background checks on all applicants.
Require Up-To-Date Medical Credentials
It's also important that you have the home health aid provide the proper medical work. They will need to show that they have vaccinations and are free of diseases such as TB and other issues. Most agencies have an entire health checklist that they provide to their employees when onboarding them. Also, home health care agencies normally are connected with clinics that will run bloodwork and administer shots should the employer require them.
To learn more, contact a resource that offers live-in care.