Our Mom will be leaving a Nursing Home to come live at her home again. Dad is elderly and in frail health so won't be able to provide much in the way of support. We'll be using Medicaid to pay for Mom to be taken care of at home, 24/7, Hopefully one aide 24/7.
What is best way to handle when an aide does not show up, or is ill and can't perform the work?
If the agency can't provide another aide to back up in a timely manner, my thought is to find a source (online perhaps?) of freelance aides who are not locked into a job of their own, and start making a bunch of calls until one can be found that will tide us over until the no/show or ill aide is available again to work, or until the agency we will be working with can provide a backup.
I am hoping that there is a large online website with lots of freelance aides that can be called on a moments notice, and that by making 10 calls or so the odds are good we will be able to get someone to fill in for the missing aide say within 4 hours max.
Biggest problem I see is if the agency aide we contract with can't perform her work for any reason, and Mom needs to be cleaned (she is completely incontinent and bedridden) it would be a very bad situation for Mom to be sitting in soiled clothes for most of the day without having a backup to take care of this within that 4 hour max window.
What websites are the best to look at where I could search by my zipcode to find local freelance aides as mentioned above that can fill any gaps in coverage to help Mom in these situations?
When this was my life with 2 separate relatives, I learned quickly that there is NO efficient, orderly, reasonable way to do this.
From having this happen numerous times, I learned that residential care is far superior to the problems of full time “help” at home.
Don’t believe the advertising.
My mom is completely bed bound with end stage Parkinson’s disease. She’s in a hospice house.
We also did home care but it became extremely difficult to care for her.
Have you considered hospice care? There are facilities that hospice uses that are absolutely wonderful.
Hospice houses generally have fewer residents than a nursing home and the staff to resident ratio is very good.
I would look into hospice. Speak to the social worker at the nursing home and have her help you find a hospice house in your area.
Your dad can’t do it. It is very time consuming and labor intensive for any individual to do this type of care.
Hospice has a complete staff, a social worker, clergy, etc.
I am thoroughly pleased with my mom’s hospice house.
Mom is happy there. We are at peace with our choice.
Best wishes to you and your family.