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5 Important Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Caregiver

January 4, 2016
interview-1018333_1920Whether you are contemplating finding a caregiver for your elderly loved one or you have already decided to do so, there are important questions to ask whether you will be screening a potential caregiver, or you will be selecting an agency to help you fill the need.  The caregiver will be working very closely with your family member so it’s very important that you get to know her/him as a person. Home health Orlando experts, BrightStar Care, provide the following list of questions that you should be asking when interviewing a prospective home health care professional regardless of whether or not you are using an agency to help find potential candidates.
  • Why are you in this profession? What drives you to want to provide home care instead of care in a facility?
  • What makes you qualified to work as a caregiver? Have you had previous experience in working with circumstances similar to those of my family member?
  • What tasks and activities are you comfortable with, or not comfortable with? (Will he/she cook or perform other household duties for your loved one?
  • What makes this job enjoyable for you, and, on the flip side, what makes it challenging?
  • How long have you been providing home care, and can you provide references?
The responsibility of hiring a caregiver can be overwhelming. The person you employ will be spending most of his/her time alone with your elderly loved one. It is critical that it be someone who has been sufficiently vetted, complete with a comprehensive background check. If you have chosen to have a home care agency to work with, there are questions that you should pose to the agency’s you might be thinking about using.
  • How long have you been in business, and are you a licensed agency?
  • Does your agency perform an evaluation on my loved one to determine what services are required or is it based solely on physician input?
  • How complete are the background checks performed on your prospective caregivers? Do you run comprehensive criminal and driving histories?
  • Have your caregivers been trained by your agency to comply with all protocols of your company and are they licensed and bonded?
  • Continuity of care is very important to my loved one. How does your agency provide coverage for days off? Do you rotate caregivers?
It’s important to not rush into selecting a caregiver, and finding a caregiver on your own may require additional time to the process; time that you can’t afford to waste. Learn more about how home health Orlando experts can help. Call BrightStar Care today at 407-877-0720.