Hiring in-home senior care for an elderly relative is commonplace. However, you may find that your elderly relative does not seem to get along with a lot of people. Trying to find caregivers with whom your elderly relative is compatible is a difficult process. Yet, there are a few things you can do to find the help you and your relative need without causing regular rounds of strife.
Screen the Applicants
If you hire private in-home care, you can screen the applicants who come for the job. You already know enough about your elderly relative to know what they like, what they like to do, and their typical routines. Based in this information, you can screen applicants who may have similar interests, hobbies, and like going to the places your relative likes to go (e.g., the park, specific restaurants, certain stores for shopping and grocery needs, etc.).
If you hire an agency, you still have some say in who takes care of you family member. The agency staff can be interviewed by you before they start. Then you can make special requests of the agency to send only those staff of which you approve.
Create Helpful Hints Lists and Expected Job Duties
Nursing staff come into homes knowing only a little bit about the people they provide care for. They gradually learn more about their clients and patients as the work continues. Most nurses and nursing assistants, however, will tell you that it is an immense help to have more information about the persons they are working with.
Making "helpful hints" and "expected job duties" lists and filing them in a binder you keep at your relative's house is an excellent idea. That way, you will have fewer confrontational issues between staff and your relative. You will also have fewer phone calls asking you what to do in certain situations.
Serious Issues Need to End
If your relative gets particularly aggressive, belligerent, or combative with one staff, that staff may have to be reassigned. It is not worth the risk to the staff person or to your relative to have that kind of behavior continue. Eventually, someone would get hurt and not because anyone would intentionally harm the other person. Take out that risk by choosing to bring in a different staff person who would be more compatible with your loved one.
To learn more about what to look for in a caregiver and how a caregiver might be able to help you or a loved one, visit https://www.inyourhomecares.com/.