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Consistently every caregiver who comes to the house has thanked me profusely for doing this for them.
I f you go through an agency to find care it is important that you understand that some of their workers will only stay for a week at a time. Others only work weekends, some only work nights, some only days. If you think about it you will quickly realize this can cause you to have a stream of people changing over care over the course of several days if you aren't routinely having one caregiver for several days at a time.
At the same time I realize that is just the way it works. There is a HUGE advantage to having a caregiver associated with an agency....there is always going to be someone available in an emergency situation. And we have had to draw on that twice. One year when we were on vacation I had a backup person lined up for my backup person for the person who was staying with mom. All those were trusted friends and not through an agency. Each one had an emergency situation come up after they showed up to take over for the person before who had had an emergency! Incredible! Our final backup was for our son to call the care agency who immediately sent in a total stranger to wake mom up and stay with her for a week. That time it turned out great.
Another time my husband was having surgery in another town, which required that we be away for 3 days. However as we were literally ready to leave the hospital room to go home, another problem was discovered that required him to go back to surgery the next day and an additional 2 day stay in hospital. Thankfuly all that was needed was a call to the agency and they cleared that particular caregivers schedule to let her continue to stay with mom.
I mention all of this to say that even if you hire a person privately to stay with you loved one, you need to have a back up plan or two in place in case something happens. Life throws everyone curve balls. That includes the faithful reliable cagiver....illness and family deaths can happen to them while they are with your loved one,
Dell
So, actually, the three caregivers I had came from 3 different sources and they were all excellent, caring, professional. Good Luck, again.
Know what you want, ask the right questions, supervise everyone like a hawk, which is easier to do in your own home. All the Best.