Often, one of the most difficult things for family members looking after an aging or disabled loved one is hiring help. There are many different types of senior care available for elderly and disabled individuals, but how do you know you’re hiring the right person or choosing the right option?

It’s important to be safe when relying on senior care. In order to do that, you must be diligent. You must do your homework and understand some key differences between various types of providers.

For the purposes of this blog, will be focusing on home care.

Hire through an agency.

Senior Care Palm Beach County, FL: Hiring Senior Care

When you hire a senior care provider to come into the elderly person’s home on a regular basis, you generally have two options: hiring independently or through an agency.

When you hire independently, you are the one responsible for checking their background, verifying references, and ensuring they have the experience they may claim on their application.

That can be a great burden for many people if they have never hired somebody before, they may not know where to start, what to look for, or key stats to focus on. It’s also easy for some individuals to lie or manipulate their resume and work history, assuming somebody won’t verify and check their credentials.

When you hire through an agency, though, most of this background screening process is done for you. That means you can be much more confident you are hiring somebody who has experience, is honest, and is receiving some level of training or support.

Include the senior in the process.

Wherever possible, include the elderly person in the hiring process. You may take this as your personal responsibility, but that aging senior is likely feeling a loss of independence and autonomy already.

If they get to decide who they work with, who comes into their home, that is incredibly empowering. Don’t underestimate the influence that including the elderly person in the hiring process can have on their emotional and mental outlook and framework.

This means an aging senior should be able to sit down with prospective home care providers, ask them questions, and get a “feel” for what they are like, how they respond, and who they are.

When hiring senior care, these two critical points can help an aging senior be safer during the process and once that home care provider begins working with him or her for several weeks, a couple of months, or even a few years.

If you or an aging loved-one is considering Senior Care in Palm Beach County, FL please contact the caring staff at Elite Senior Home Care today. (561) 570-6613