If you have an elderly parent, and you are interested in having them cared for at home since you are unable to do it yourself, you will need to research different home health care options to find someone qualified to take on the task. Home health care has several benefits to the patient if you hire the right help. Here are some tips to follow when making the decision on who to hire for the job.

Private Or Established Service

When picking home health care you will need to decide if you are going to hire a service that provides help from several different employees or if you would rather hire a private employee dedicated to taking care of your parent. A service will always have someone available to be at your home. A private worker would only be able to be there during certain hours unless you have them live in the home. Having one person take care of your parent will take away any uncertainty and unfamiliarity they may experience with several different workers. You would need to do extensive background checks on your own if you decide to take this route.

Doing Detective Work

When hiring home health care services, you want to make sure every employee that comes into your parent's home is not a risk to your parent's well-being. If you are dealing with an established home health care service, ask them for a list of employee names that will be coming to your parent's home. Ask them for verification for each of these employees that proves they had passed psychiatric evaluations and that they have criminal background checks completed. 

If you are hiring an employee on your own, check with your local health care clinic to request a psychiatric evaluation be done on the potential employee. You want to make sure that anyone hired will not be abusive to your parent, so this is an important part of the evaluation process. If a potential caregiver refuses to be screened, move on to another applicant. Hire an agency to conduct a background check, or do it on your own using online tools. Make sure to have the potential employee sign a waiver specifying that they are aware you will be checking into their background. If they do not sign, they are not the right candidate for the job.

Check All References

When hiring a home health care worker or service, ask for a list of references for each person coming into your parent's home. Make sure to call each one of these to follow-up on the care they have provided others. If an employee has several positive reviews from other people who have had them help their loved ones, along with a passing psychiatric evaluation and a clean record, they may be a good fit in taking care of your parent.

If you're looking for a psych evaluation, visit Rainbow Pediatrics.