How do I decide whether I choose Home Care Agencies or Independent Caregivers?
Families who need help taking care of an elderly family member can hire a private carer or work with a Home Care Agencies. To choose the right option for an older person you care about, you need to know how each one operates, what services they offer, and how much they cost. This article talks about the differences between home care agencies and carers who work on their own.
Home Care Agencies
What is Home Care Agencies? These are licensed private companies that hire carers and send them to the homes of seniors to take care of them. They can help people in both medicinal and non-therapeutic ways. Healthcare professionals are the ones who give medical care. Non-medical care services include help with things like bathing that people need to do every day. Grooming and eating. And the making of food. Professionals who provide these services don’t have to return to school.
Independent caregivers
The family hires these carers directly to take care of their elderly loved ones. In this case, you only work with the carer. No organization acts as a go-between for the family and the carer. Independent carers sometimes help with medical care, but only those who have been trained to do so. Even so, it’s not easy to find independent carers who are also skilled at medical care. Most of the time, independent carers help seniors with their own needs. Families can save money on home care costs by hiring independent carers.
Comparison between home care agencies and independent caregivers
How much does health care cost?
It costs more to use a Home Care Agencies to provide caregiving services than to hire an independent carer directly. A home care agency charges $20 per hour, while independent carers charge between $14 and $16 per hour. This is a 20%–30% difference. All fifty states have the same rate. The difference in hourly rates may seem like a big deal, but you need to look at all the details before you decide.
Kinds of care given
Care services include medical care like giving daily injections, keeping an eye on vital signs, taking care of wounds, and helping with daily tasks like taking medications, bathing, getting dressed, eating, and making meals. Home Care Agencies who help with things that aren’t medically related, they can help clean the house, run errands, and take you shopping. Health care and non-medical services can be provided by both independent carers and home care agencies. Even so, a carer who works on his own might not be trained to give medical services.
So, if you need health care help at home, you might want to use Home Care Agencies because they can find you someone who is qualified to help. Also, the problems and extra responsibilities that come with medical care services may force a family to hire a home care agency to help their loved one. If there wasn’t medical care, independent carers and agencies would do the same things for seniors in their homes if there wasn’t medical care.
How effective the care is
When you choose to work with Home Care Agencies, you can always call and ask for a different carer if you’re not happy with the one they send. If you are unhappy with the services provided by an independent carer, you have to look for and even train a new one.
Hire a caregiver
When you work with Home Care Agencies, it’s easier to locate a caregiver. It’s a simple thing to do. You just need to call the agency, and since they already have carers in place, they will send them to your home. Also, you can always use Google to locate agencies and get a carer quickly. But it takes time to find an independent carer. It is just as difficult to hire a replacement employee. You might put an ad up somewhere so that people can send cover letters. Then you have to meet the carers and talk to them one by one until you find one who has the qualities you want. Most families use home care agencies instead of hiring a carer on their own because it’s difficult to find one.
Home care agencies have their pros and cons.
Pros And Cons of Home Care Agencies
- It’s easy to find babysitters.
- Care services are expensive. When you hire a private carer, you usually pay more.
- Agencies make sure that their carers aren’t dishonest by using a fair and reliable hiring process.
- Even if you enjoyed your job and would like to have it back, there is no guarantee that you will always have the same one.
- If you are unhappy with the work of one of your carers, you can easily ask a home care agency to send you someone else.
- When you talk to managers at the agency about a problem, they might not do anything about it. You might not be happy with how they answer your questions.
- You can easily get in touch with people who can help with medical care.
- You don’t have the power to hire or fire carers.
- Before sending the carers to work, they teach them how to do their jobs.
- Before putting a carer to work with a senior, check their backgrounds and make sure they have the right skills and experience.
Pros and Cons of Hiring a Caregiver Who Works on Their Own
- Care services cost less, so you can save money on home care.
- It takes a long time to hire a private carer because you have to check their background and see if they are qualified for the job.
- You have the power to choose who will care for your loved one.
- If the carer says that someone in your family beat them up or sexually harassed them, you will be punished.
- You talk to the private carer directly instead of working through a middleman like an agency.
- If you don’t have much time to waste, you may have to train for a career on your own. This could take up your time or cost you money or other things.
- In your home, carers can do whatever you want them to do. This is different from agencies, where the state limits what their workers can do.
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