You love your parents and you want to take care of them. The problem is either that you live far away and can’t move or you have many other obligations in your life and can’t devote the time to the amount of care that your parents need.

If your parents need help with daily activities and taking their medication properly, but they aren’t ready to move out of their house, hiring a home health aide may be your best bet.

Benefits of Home Health Care

There are many benefits to hiring someone to come into the home and provide care. When you do this, your parent gets the help and assistance they need and still feel secure by staying in their home.

What does a home health aide do? Some of the services they provide are bathing, preparing meals, doing light housekeeping, running errands or providing transportation to local stores so your parent can do their own shopping. Most importantly, the aide will also provide companionship.

When looking for an aide, you will have to ask many questions. The above services are pretty standard but they vary greatly depending on who is providing the service.

Here are some questions you need to think about:

• Do you want to hire an individual or use a professional service?

• Does your parent require the assistance of a trained medical professional?

• What services do they provide?

• Do they have several references?

• Can they plan and prepare nutritional meals that are good for your parent?

• Can they be trusted to give your parents the proper amounts of medication?

• Can they be trusted to be in your parent’s house?

• Are they willing to do some light housekeeping?

• Can they provide transportation for your parent for errands, shopping, and doctor appointments?

• Do they have a current and valid driver’s license?

• What rates do they charge?

• Do they charge by the hour or by the day?

• Is the company they work for licensed?

• Is the company they work for reputable?

All of these are very important questions that you need to ask before you entrust the care of your parent to anyone. You need to be particularly diligent if you live far away from your parents. If possible, have someone that lives in the same city make periodic checks to see that everything is okay.

If you live in the same city, you can check in frequently the see how the aide is treating your parent and if they are performing the tasks that they agreed upon.

By doing your homework and asking the right questions, you can be sure that you are hiring the right person to care for your parent. Many times strong bonds are formed between the elderly and their home health aides and friendships are formed which enrich the lives of your parents.

Jason Ladock

Copyrighted material; do not reprint without permission.

 

View all articles by Jason Ladock