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D
derochka Asked December 2019

Why is it so hard to find caregivers who speak and understand English?

I finally broke down and hired an agency after the privately hired caregivers went overseas and did not return. The first one either does not understand what Mom says or just ignores her when she says she wants something, They are sending us a new one to try but I am not hopeful. In some ways it would be easier if she wasn't doing well in most ways and needed full time care. I would not feel bad about putting her in a facility but this circle of part time caregivers is crazy.

needtowashhair Dec 2019
I haven't had any problems with this. Yes, many caregivers are immigrants. But I find some of them speak better English than many Americans.

JoAnn29 Dec 2019
Not sure why they would send a person who can't speak English well to a private home where they have to be able to communicate. I can see a facility because there maybe someone there that can translate. I live in NJ where there are a lot of Spanish speaking people.

You have a right to ask for someone who can understand and communicate. I have dealt with this on the phone.
worriedinCali Dec 2019
Well English isn’t the official language of this country so I don’t know why anyone would assume the agencies would send people who speak perfect English? Especially if the client didn’t state a language preference. The reality is, most people in this wonderful country who are willing to do The back breaking work of a caregiver for minimum wage are non-White immigrants who don’t speak English as a first language.

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freqflyer Dec 2019
derochka, when my Dad needed professional caregivers I went with a nationwide agency and the vast majority of the caregivers were 2nd or 3rd or 4th generation here in the States. Dad did have night caregivers where English was their second language, but Dad had no problem understanding when they spoke, and vise versa. Dad had worked decades for a company that was diverse thus was use to different accents.

My Mom had problems understanding the Queen's English, southern and Boston accents.... [sigh].

It's good that the agency is sending different caregivers to try out. My Dad picked two to be his regular scheduled caregivers and they were with him over a year. The other shifts weren't that important, Dad did prefer an more mature caregiver compared to someone right out of school as there was much more in common to talk about. What 18-25 year old would know who Frank Sinatra was?

anonymous912123 Dec 2019
Back to money again, they are not paid much. We had one for my mother thru an agency, it was $12.50 an hour, I wondered how much the caretaker got as the agency has to make money too, did not compute to me! Possibly minimum wage?
needtowashhair Dec 2019
That's insane. Where I live, $12.50 is almost minimum wage. In some places $12.50 is lower than minimum wage.

It's not uncommon for an agency to take 30-50%. Where I live, the cheapest agencies are $26/hour. I've spoken to the people they send over and they get $13-$15/hour. Which for my area is basically minimum wage. They would make more working at Starbucks and get better benefits.

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