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Who are you caring for?
Which best describes their mobility?
How well are they maintaining their hygiene?
How are they managing their medications?
Does their living environment pose any safety concerns?
Fall risks, spoiled food, or other threats to wellbeing
Are they experiencing any memory loss?
Which best describes your loved one's social life?
Acknowledgment of Disclosures and Authorization
By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington. Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services. APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid. We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour. APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment. You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints. Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or ConsumerFeedback@aplaceformom.com to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights. APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.I agree that: A.I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information"). B.APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink. C.APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site. D.If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records. E.This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year. F.You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
✔
I acknowledge and authorize
✔
I consent to the collection of my consumer health data.*
✔
I consent to the sharing of my consumer health data with qualified home care agencies.*
*If I am consenting on behalf of someone else, I have the proper authorization to do so. By clicking Get My Results, you agree to our Privacy Policy. You also consent to receive calls and texts, which may be autodialed, from us and our customer communities. Your consent is not a condition to using our service. Please visit our Terms of Use. for information about our privacy practices.
Mostly Independent
Your loved one may not require home care or assisted living services at this time. However, continue to monitor their condition for changes and consider occasional in-home care services for help as needed.
Remember, this assessment is not a substitute for professional advice.
Share a few details and we will match you to trusted home care in your area:
Care agencies were never accountable for anything. This is not new. Sometime examine the paperwork that comes with an agency. Read the fine print and you'll see that you're agreeing to them taking little to no responsibility for their workers, or their clients, or their client's property. You know if in-home caregiving was a job regulated by the government some good things would happen. Like elders would get better care because the field would get better people. You can't expect much from someone making minimum wage or just above on a job that offers them nothing. Being an in-home caregiver employed by an agency is a lousy, crappy job. If the worker does great and is very committed, or they completely blow your "loved one" off they get the same low pay and no benefits from their agency. Your worker should not have reported you for leaving a vulnerable adult alone. There was no need for that and she should have talked to you about it. But, I can't tell you how many times when I worked for agencies that a family member was supposed to be home at a certain time and wouldn't show up. We work on a schedule too and other people come after their elder. This is why I went private care. I pick who I will work for and what the pay will be. No one ever got a moment of my time that wasn't paid for. All my clients understood. Everyone is going private hire these days if they can because families don't want to deal with agency red tape. Too often families take advantage of a caregiver's service when they're with an agency because the agency takes advantage of it. A family will expect them to stay longer without additional pay being provided if they're going to be late. All too often they also expect full housekeeping service for the whole family as well. So really the $2.25 an hour raise really isn't a big deal and anyone can go free to community college through government grants. I'm so sure there's no paid sick, vacation, or over time coming with that raise. No health insurance or retirement plan either. Not all that impressive when you think about it.
A website called phinational.org. is a good site to learn the problems of direct care. Their mission is to insure quality care for older adults by creating quality jobs for direct care workers. They believe that caring, committed relationships between direct care workers and their clients are at the heart of quality care. But it's hard to provide quality care when you can't provide quality employment. Direct care workers, both home care and facility care workers, may have good intentions when they hire on, but soon learn that the pay is low, the benefits are poor, there's no career path, the training is poor, etc., etc.
Totally aware, as I was an unpaid caregiver for my mom, dad and brother for many years!
Thanks for sharing this article. I just read it. I would like to be hopeful in all situations and not be a negative person but I suppose that I am always going to be skeptical about promises made by our government, either party, unless I see evidence of what has been proposed.
Families need help, facilities need help as well. That’s a given. Let’s hope, there are viable solutions down the road, for everyone. Those who provide care struggle to find people to provide care. I see want ads constantly by agencies and facilities.
Those who work as caregivers seem to have many grievances that they wish to have addressed. Family members desperately need respite care. I know that I was extremely grateful for the very few hours that I received from Council on Aging. Some caregivers were great. Others were lousy. I would not have even known about Council on Aging had it not been for this forum.
I wish primary care doctors would educate the families better on what to expect when dealing with caring for the elderly. We see doctors often with our parents. None of the focus is on us the caregiver, understandably, it is on the patient, but meanwhile, caregivers are burning out at a rapid pace.
It truly is a difficult situation for all involved. I wish that I knew what the solution was. I have ideas of what I would like to see for our future. I hope that I live long enough to see some of them come into play.
We need to work together, listen to each other and hopefully find resolutions to caring for the elderly. People are living a lot longer these days. Neither of my parents cared for their parents. People are expected to live on to be 100 and up. Lord, I don’t want to live that long! LOL
In all seriousness, I never wish to be a burden on my daughters. I do not expect them to be my caregivers. I made this perfectly clear to them. I will go into a facility when needed. I want my children to live their own lives, and finding their purpose in life, hopefully filled with joy and meaning.
My 85 year old mother has been living with my husband and I for 3 years. The first 2 years she received 4 hours of medicaid waiver twice a week. We had numerous caregivers, it was a revolving door. I worked full time, so I was at the mercy of the agency to send a caregiver. One of the caregivers would come in and eat our food and drink my mother's Ensure. I think she discounted my mother's mental capacity because of having a dx of dementia. You are right about playing on their phones and stealing. We did have an older caregiver that was very good with my mother. She would interact with her and play cards. After a year with my mother that caregiver left because of a dispute with the agency. Then Covid happened and I haven't had another caregiver since by choice. I've been doing all her care. My husband has since retired and I'm about to retire. I've decided, at least for me, it's just not worth the hassle.
By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington.
Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services.
APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid.
We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour.
APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment.
You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints.
Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or ConsumerFeedback@aplaceformom.com to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights.
APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.
I agree that:
A.
I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information").
B.
APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink.
C.
APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site.
D.
If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records.
E.
This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year.
F.
You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
Care agencies were never accountable for anything. This is not new.
Sometime examine the paperwork that comes with an agency. Read the fine print and you'll see that you're agreeing to them taking little to no responsibility for their workers, or their clients, or their client's property. You know if in-home caregiving was a job regulated by the government some good things would happen.
Like elders would get better care because the field would get better people. You can't expect much from someone making minimum wage or just above on a job that offers them nothing.
Being an in-home caregiver employed by an agency is a lousy, crappy job. If the worker does great and is very committed, or they completely blow your "loved one" off they get the same low pay and no benefits from their agency.
Your worker should not have reported you for leaving a vulnerable adult alone. There was no need for that and she should have talked to you about it. But, I can't tell you how many times when I worked for agencies that a family member was supposed to be home at a certain time and wouldn't show up. We work on a schedule too and other people come after their elder.
This is why I went private care. I pick who I will work for and what the pay will be. No one ever got a moment of my time that wasn't paid for. All my clients understood. Everyone is going private hire these days if they can because families don't want to deal with agency red tape. Too often families take advantage of a caregiver's service when they're with an agency because the agency takes advantage of it. A family will expect them to stay longer without additional pay being provided if they're going to be late. All too often they also expect full housekeeping service for the whole family as well. So really the $2.25 an hour raise really isn't a big deal and anyone can go free to community college through government grants. I'm so sure there's no paid sick, vacation, or over time coming with that raise. No health insurance or retirement plan either. Not all that impressive when you think about it.
Thanks for sharing this article. I just read it. I would like to be hopeful in all situations and not be a negative person but I suppose that I am always going to be skeptical about promises made by our government, either party, unless I see evidence of what has been proposed.
Families need help, facilities need help as well. That’s a given. Let’s hope, there are viable solutions down the road, for everyone. Those who provide care struggle to find people to provide care. I see want ads constantly by agencies and facilities.
Those who work as caregivers seem to have many grievances that they wish to have addressed. Family members desperately need respite care. I know that I was extremely grateful for the very few hours that I received from Council on Aging. Some caregivers were great. Others were lousy. I would not have even known about Council on Aging had it not been for this forum.
I wish primary care doctors would educate the families better on what to expect when dealing with caring for the elderly. We see doctors often with our parents. None of the focus is on us the caregiver, understandably, it is on the patient, but meanwhile, caregivers are burning out at a rapid pace.
It truly is a difficult situation for all involved. I wish that I knew what the solution was. I have ideas of what I would like to see for our future. I hope that I live long enough to see some of them come into play.
We need to work together, listen to each other and hopefully find resolutions to caring for the elderly. People are living a lot longer these days. Neither of my parents cared for their parents. People are expected to live on to be 100 and up. Lord, I don’t want to live that long! LOL
In all seriousness, I never wish to be a burden on my daughters. I do not expect them to be my caregivers. I made this perfectly clear to them. I will go into a facility when needed. I want my children to live their own lives, and finding their purpose in life, hopefully filled with joy and meaning.
We did have an older caregiver that was very good with my mother. She would interact with her and play cards. After a year with my mother that caregiver left because of a dispute with the agency. Then Covid happened and I haven't had another caregiver since by choice. I've been doing all her care. My husband has since retired and I'm about to retire. I've decided, at least for me, it's just not worth the hassle.