When a family member ages, finding care for them should be an opportunity to ease tension surrounding their quality of life instead of a new avenue to accrue additional stress. While those seeking care often believe that directly hiring a caregiver rather than proceeding through an established organization grants them more freedom in their decision-making and more personalized care for their loved ones, it often does the exact opposite, stifling the quality of care and leaving families frustrated. The pitfalls of hiring a caregiver directly are immense, harming those searching for care and, more importantly, those receiving it.
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These harms manifest in several ways:
1) Lack of Accountability in Care
Elderly loved ones experiencing memory-related problems often struggle to advocate for themselves. In fact, as the National Institute of Health reported in 2019, those with memory care are substantially more likely to experience some sort of mistreatment during their care, causing accountability mechanisms for quality of care to be incredibly important. When hiring caregivers directly, due to a lack of organizational structure, they undergo little to no regulation surrounding their practices. Even if a family member is particular about specific aspects of care they view as important, they might not be educated on aspects of care like medical practices when requesting care independently. Thus, even if accountability is attempted, those enforcing accountability with direct hiring practices might not be confident or well-informed about the ideas they are enforcing.
Conversely, when a home care provider serves as the avenue for aid services, they have substantially more mechanisms in place to ensure accountability, from an extensive understanding of state and national healthcare service regulations to simply acting as higher-ups to address concerns and adapt caregiver practices as necessary. Especially if a caregiver begins as an unideal fit for your family, having systems in place to encourage a change in that caregiver’s practices is essential to protect your loved ones.
2) Independently Conducting Interviews
While independently hiring a caregiver, individuals must conduct interviews and background checks, often without adequate software or training. Without sufficient knowledge of the qualities they might be searching for in their aid in combination with the stress that frequently
accompanies finding a caregiver, the interview process will likely lack the necessary nuance to ensure quality care. Beyond that, individuals often lack access to acceptable background check software, preventing them from acquiring the full story surrounding their applicants. When hiring a caregiver, families strive to be confident that their loved ones are left in the hands of an empathetic, knowledgeable individual. Insofar as independent hiring structurally prevents these families’ ability to confirm that, it is far more likely that they hire an under-qualified individual, especially if the care needs are urgent and extensive interview processes are not possible.
Comparatively, established companies have extensive access to background check software and have standardized interview systems to confirm that applicants possess the necessary experience and qualifications. Because these processes are conducted well in advance of
families requesting care, alongside the quality of caregiver improving, the immediacy of care is far more preferable as well.
3) Reduced Flexibility
Individual caregivers, like the average person, are likely to become unavailable throughout the year due to aspects of life such as sickness, family obligations, vacations, etc. Further, families sometimes feel that the first caregiver they work with does not meet their specific needs, and
while a larger company could adjust for that or provide other options for care, those seeking caregiving directly. Unfortunately, when families hire independently, finding an alternate caregiver poses a significant challenge, including repeating the initial interview process that took place.
Because companies that provide care have the infrastructure in place, such as mandatory advance notice for leave and additional caregivers, finding replacements during emergencies is much simpler.
Recognize that directly hiring a caregiver was never the solution to your family’s needs it simply created more problems to solve down the line. When seeking care for family members, the priority is the comfort of those receiving the care. Hiring a caregiver directly makes it significantly more difficult to ensure the quality and consistency of the care your loved one receives, and hiring aid through an established provider addresses many of those concerns head-on, securing the care that you and your family deserve.