Bluegrass Help at Home Registry
Tips for Consumers: Interviewing a Caregiver
- Ask for a sample of the person’s on the job record keeping.
Experienced caregivers will generally maintain a journal to keep track of daily activities.
- Prepare some scenarios of things that you think might occur with your particular situation and ask how they would respond to or handle it.
- Make sure to do a background or criminal records check before you allow someone in your home to care for your loved one.
- Ask for references of former clients.
Be wary of persons that claim to have experience yet cannot offer any professional references along with current with contact information.
- Consider a trial or probationary period, after which the relationship and the work-to-date can be reviewed, and a determination made as to whether to continue with the agreement, modify it, or terminate it can be made.
- Make sure that you have some form of written agreement between you and the worker concerning the work to be done; the agreed upon compensation for that work; the timeframe; frequency; and other details.Both you and the employee should sign and date the document.
- Where possible, practical, and appropriate, include the person being cared for in any decisions and processes relative to the interviewing and hiring of a caregiver.