Soon after her 85th birthday, LaRue started showing signs of dementia. She began struggling with daily tasks such as cooking, dressing herself, and running errands. After discussing it with LaRue, her children came to the conclusion that she would require outside care from a caregiver to help ensure she was healthy and happy. While her family initially sought out a private caregiver, they quickly became concerned as the caregivers who applied for the position wouldn’t return phone calls or their references weren’t reachable. The family decided to start interviewing home care agencies that would match LaRue’s needs and provide the best care possible.
Many families face the struggle of choosing between a private caregiver and a home care agency every day. Highlighting the benefits your home care agency can offer versus a private caregiver can give you the advantage when marketing your home care business to potential clients.
So, what do home care providers offer that a private caregiver can’t? Below, we have outlined the benefits of a home care agency versus a private caregiver:
1. Support from the Whole Team
With home care agencies, your clients have a whole team to help ensure their questions are answered and their needs are met. If your caregivers can’t make their shift or clients are struggling with their caregiver, your home care agency is there to work through and solve the problem to ensure clients are satisfied with their care. Private caregivers work alone, so if they can’t make a shift or are unhappy with their work, their clients are left to fend for themselves.
2. Caregiver Screening
Every caregiver who works for a home care agency goes through a thorough screening process. As a home care business owner, you carefully choose your caregivers based on the results of their background checks, experience, and other qualifications, to ensure your clients are receiving care from reliable and qualified caregivers. Private caregivers aren’t required to have proof of a background check or screening, so families and seniors may have no way of knowing the quality of caregiver they are hiring.
Read: Hiring Qualified Caregivers for Your Home Care Business
3. Caregiver Matching
Almost all home care agencies have a caregiver matching system in place. As a home care owner, you know that each client is unique and may require a specific set of skills from their caregiver. Through in-depth interviews, home care providers are able to pair their clients with a caregiver who best meets their needs. Private caregivers and clients may not know if they are compatible until they start working together. If they aren’t compatible, the client has to go through the hiring process once again.
Read: 5 Ways to Improve Client and Caregiver Compatibility
4. Monitor and Supervise
One of the great benefits of a home care agency is you consistently monitor, supervise, and train your caregivers to ensure clients are getting the best quality of care possible. If caregivers aren’t meeting the needs of your clients, you will take the time to find the right replacement. If a private caregiver isn’t qualified to care for a client, the client is responsible for finding a replacement.
5. Payroll and Benefits
Home care providers will ensure their caregivers are getting fair pay and will handle any issues with pay raises, benefits, and time off. Individuals who hire a private caregiver are directly responsible for making sure their caregiver is paid. This means they have to handle their caregiver’s pay schedule, benefits, vacation days, and taxes.
Just as LaRue discovered a home care agency would be more reliable for her care, many families are searching for the same peace and comfort for their loved ones. Beyond the five listed here, home care agencies provide many benefits that a private caregiver can’t. Websites like BestofHomeCare.com and Caring.com can help give you the advantage on private caregivers and other home care owners.
“This is a great post for giving care to elderly people. I like most of your blogs for Senior Care.
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Thanks for letting me know that a home care business has an entire team to support your loved one. My father is having a hard time living on his own. I want to hire a home care service so he has a lot of people to get support from.
I liked how you mentioned that caregivers are consistently monitored and supervised ensuring the best quality. My aunt is getting up there in age and is having a hard time getting around just for herself. I have always wondered if we should do home care or not. Thanks for the encouraging information and I will pass this along to my family members.
I agree with the point about how private caregivers should go through a screening process. My aunt is currently losing her battle to dementia and our family is thinking about getting her home care service to help her throughout the day. I’ll be sure to share this with the rest of the family so we can screen different companies that fit our needs.
The best part of your blog is when you said that a home care provider could match their clients with a caregiver that would be compatible with them and would meet their needs. I will share this with my husband because he always worries about his 59-year-old mother who suffered from a stroke two weeks ago. I will ask him to find an in-home elderly care service that offers rehabilitation services as well.
We are so glad to help, Ava! Wishing you all the best as you go through this difficult time.
I loved that you mentioned that you will be matched with a caregiver that has a specific set of skills that will meet your needs. Last Monday, my best friend mentioned that he wanted to hire a reliable senior care service provider for her 63-year-old mother who has been showing signs of dementia. She wanted to find a professional that is an expert with the type of health issues that her mother has.