Questions to Ask When Interviewing a Caregiver Agency
Caregivers are an excellent resource for assisting with self-care, light home management, and running errands. When you decide to bring a caregiver into the home to provide care for yourself or your loved one, there are many things to consider. Here is a guide to help you in your decision-making process.
What Are the Different Types of Caregiver Agencies?
First, you need to determine what type of care you need. Are you looking for a caregiver to provide assistance with bathing and dressing, meal preparation, going to the grocery store, sorting medications, or changing wound dressings? The type of care that you are looking for will have a significant impact on the agency that you choose.
There are two main categories of caregiver agencies:
Non-Medical: Non-medical agencies provide basic care services covering self-care, companionship, light home management and transportation. Non-medical caregivers are not able to assist with managing medications (sorting or distributing), changing wound dressings, or managing IV’s, catheters (they may empty the bag, only), g-tubes or trachs. These agencies are divided into two subcategories:
Companion Care: Companions are only able to provide services that do not involve direct patient contact. They can assist with meal preparation, transportation, and as the name sates, companionship. They can help a client engage in meaningful leisure activities and provide supervision and cues for self-care. Companions, in most cases, are not allowed to provide hands-on assistance to clients. They are not able to provide steadying assistance for walking, balance, or standing up. They are also not allowed to provide hands-on assistance for bathing, dressing, or using the bathroom. They can provide cues and encouragement to tell the client what they should do, but they are not able to provide direct assistance. Companions are good for clients who need light supervision, need someone to check in on them during the day if they live alone, or those who need assistance with light cooking and meal preparation.
Personal Care Assistance: This service is provided by several professionals including personal care aids (PCA’s), caregivers, and/or certified nursing assistants (CNA’s). These caregivers can provide companion-level care, in addition to hands-on assistance for mobility, transfers and self-care. Tasks may include assistance with bathing, dressing, using the bathroom, eating, meal preparation, light home management, and transportation.
Medical: Medical care agencies provide care under the direct order of a primary care physician. Medically based services are provided by registered nurses (RN’s), licensed practical nurses (LPN’s), or licensed vocational nurses (LVN’s). Some of these agencies may also offer non-medical personal care services. Medical care services may include:
Wound care
Management of catheters and ostomy bags
G-tube management
Trach management
Sorting and distributing medications
Monitoring blood sugar and diabetic management
IV infusions
What things do I need to Consider when Choosing a Caregiver Agency?
Once you decide which type of care you need, there are other things that are important to consider:
Consistency: If your loved one has memory loss, or has detailed care needs, having a consistent caregiver will be integral to the success of their care plan.
Quality: Read the reviews! These will help you get a picture of the quality of the agency and their caregivers. You can also ask friends or other members of the community which agencies they have had positive experiences with to help aid in your search. You can also ask other trusted health professionals for guidance.
Hourly Minimums: Most agencies have hourly minimums. The most common limit is four hours per day. Some agencies also require a minimal number of hours per week. Other agencies will offer fewer hours, but at an increased rate. You should have a schedule in mind prior to calling an agency to ensure smooth scheduling.
Physical Assistance: Each agency has their own restrictions on how much lifting assistance their caregivers can provide. If your loved one requires assistance to stand up, walk or get in and out of bed, this is a critical topic to discuss. While some agencies are willing and able to provide physical assistance with lifting and positioning, others have a no-lift policy. This means that if your loved one requires more than minimal to moderate assistance, they may not be able to provide services, or may require that you have a mechanical lift (Hoyer lift or sit to stand lift) available. Some may even require that two caregivers be present for heavy lifting, or use of a mechanical lift.
Region: You will want to ensure that the agency that you choose covers your specific region.
What Questions should I Ask?
Once you determine the type of service that you need, it is time to compile your list of questions and start making phone calls. I recommend calling at least three agencies to compare rates and services. Here are important questions that you should ask:
What types of services do you provide?
Do you have an hourly minimum per day or per week? Do your rates change based on the number of hours provided?
Will I be able to keep the same caregiver(s), each shift, or will it be a different one each time?
What is the protocol if my caregiver calls out for the day?
What kind of training/certifications do your caregivers have/receive?
What do I do if I need to change the care plan?
Who oversees supervision of the caregivers? What is their role?
Will I receive updates on how my loved one is doing with his/her care?
Are your caregivers able to help with lifting or mobility? What is your lifting policy? Are they trained in the use of mechanical lifts?
What do I do if I have a concern or complaint?
If your loved one has a specific diagnosis (Stroke, Parkinson’s, ALS, Alzheimer’s, recent joint replacement, etc.) you will want to ask if the caregivers have experience with that specific condition.
Finding the right caregiver agency can seem like a daunting process, however with the right guidance and tools, it will be easy to sort through your options and find the ideal fit for you. For additional information, please see our post on “Hiring a Private Caregiver versus Using a Caregiver Agency.” If you want more caregiver resources, feel free to check out our publication A Therapist’s Guide to Caregiving for a comprehensive guide on adaptive equipment and techniques for providing safe care in the home. Also, feel free to check out our full video training course for detailed video instruction.
A Therapist’s Guide to Caregiving
The book includes 170 pages of full-color, step-by step instructions, to provide you with all the skills you need to provide safe, thorough, and compassionate care at home.
This is your comprehensive guide to giving you with the skills you need to provide safe, effective, and compassionate care to family members, friends or clients in the home. This course includes 6 hours of instructional video covering client basic adaptive equipment, functional mobility, lifting techniques, transfers, self-care skills, bed level care, use of client lifts and transfer devices, and managing falls. Click "Preview Caregiver Course" below to preview the lessons and descriptions.
