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Ro & Steve
Individually rated for:
We used Home Instead for a few months to bring in caregivers who assisted my mother with vascular dementia. They were always professional but we eventually went to private care for a couple of reason:
> It was $25 per hour for a caregiver, which was a little steep for my Mom’s budget. We found we could pay a private caregiver a living wage (more then the caregivers cut of the agency’s $25 per hour fee), and save Mom money by hiring privately and assuming the responsibilities of an employer.
> They had a policy that the caregiver and family members not communicate with each other via phone or text, but instead call the office which would then relay the messages back and forth between us. We found this out after we had already swapped phone numbers so we could text back and forth things like… “Hey, I’m at the store, do we need anything at home?” or “Is Mom doing okay today? I’ll be out for another hour unless she’s having a rough time and you need me home.” Calling the office each time we had something simple to say was ridiculous, and I have a pet-peeve of being scolded for doing something that makes perfect sense versus inefficiency for policy sake.
> We were not allowed to interview the caregivers prior to them coming to the home, unless we paid them. After the first caregiver didn’t work out, the sent another one who was nice and seemed very professional, but was so boisterous Mom disliked her immediately, and by the end of her four hours I couldn’t wait to get her out of the house and have some peace and quiet.
So we took the private hire route instead because we needed more control of the financial costs, who we choose to invite in our home on a daily basis, and because texting makes way more sense then playing telephone with a receptionist.