My mom (93) has had a woman(Ann) assisting her with scheduling appointments, scheduling maintenance of the property, driving my mom to appointments, providing dog/house sitting services when my mom is out of town and helping my mom with projects around the house. My mom doesn't need any medical care at this point, she is very active and has few physical issues, but her confusion and memory issues are increasing greatly! Because of the memory issues, my mom becomes increasingly vulnerable. She is fiercely independant, and greatly values her privacy! My brother and I have POA and that was my mom's decision.
We must change the financial situation to make sure that my mom has the money to live in her house which is her wish! The current financial arrangement gives Ann the ability to earn money without any transparancy or accountability. My mom is happy with the current arrangement and pushes back when I ask her what some expendatures are, but she usually has no idea what the money was used for. I do have access to the main checking account and both our names are on the account and checks.
I am very appreciative for Ann, she has made it possible for my mom to live in her home. She doesn't live at my mom's house but comes over to assist with tasks, take her to appointments and help her with projects around the house.
When my mom does need more care, in the future, Ann says she wants to continue to care for my mom.
Our goal(my brother and I) is to make sure that my mom has the help she needs, and the financial agreements are transparent, there is complete accountability as to how money is spent, a budget that can be agreed upon by all, and the money my mom has will keep her in her home!
If anyone has set up a caregiver agreement independent of an agency, I'd appreciate any input!
Thank you,
Sandworm
First you need full access to all of your mother's accounts. If she has dementia, she should not be in control of her finances anymore.
It sounds to me like Ann is being paid in cash under-the-table and that's why the "expenditures" are a mystery. That's neither here nor there though because that's a whole other topic.
What Ann should be doing is writing a receipt every week of the hours she worked. Then she should be paid by you or your sibling.
If there's any household shopping done, there should be a pre-paid debit card used and Ann along with the receipt she writes you for her hours, will also include all of the shopping receipts.
The paying should be taken over by you or your sibling now. Every week you write out Ann's pay check, look at the receipts, and make sure the amounts spent from your mother's accounts match up.
Your mother probably should not be living alone anymore if she has dementia and is vulnerable now. Just because she's in great physical shape that doesn't mean that she's in great mental shape.
Template for care document for contract between my mom and I so I ...
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Simply write into search "template for caregiver to elderly contract" and you will find quite a lot, some are state specific, and some require quite a nominal fee to pull offline.
Not certain why, for something that really won't be all that "legal" in any case, other than to dictate duties and expectations on your part and agreement on the caregivers, you couldn't simply write up your own contract. The breaking of this contract would be easily done if the caregiver decides to quit and there would be little you could do in terms of enforcing such a contract that I can see.
If you are quite adamant about having this do consider a call to an Elder Law Attorney for a bit of advice on the options.
Sure wish you the best.