When you speak to a home care agency, they will want to know about your mom and what her health and care needs are, her home environment, and personality. You can ask them questions about how they do things like, foremost, how they screen the caregivers, how often they supervise them, how they handle situations after hours and if someone is on-call for help if you need to call, how many caregivers they have in case you need a different one, how they are trained, cost and billing, etc. Someone from the agency should meet with your mom to fill out paperwork, assess her home environment, and answer any questions, and then they will assign a caregiver for the days and times that you have requested. If you could be present for the meeting it would be valuable for having everyone on the same page, but you don't have to be unless she has any cognitive issues. It should be a simple and streamline process that will improve your mom's quality of life and give you peace of mind.

Your brother is correct. Typically, nurses do professional tasks like medication management and administration, wound care, evaluating health status, and medically complex care. They usually work through home health companies. Medicare and health insurance pays for Home Health care. Home care is assistance with activities that are usually performed on our own, but that someone is no longer able to do by themselves like help with bathing, dressing and grooming, meal preparation, housekeeping, and driving. The caregivers sometimes are certified nurses assistants, and sometimes they are caring individuals who have had a lot of experience helping people. They can also alert the agency or family if they observe any changes in the client's condition or anything that they are concerned about. This type of care is considered custodial and is private pay unless the client has a low enough income to qualify for Medicaid.

It is important to understand what their objections are. Often it is just the fear of the unknown. If someone from the home care agency, such as Griswold Home Care, meets with the person who is in need of care face to face and explains the service, that often takes much of the fear out of it. The idea of having someone that they don't know come into their home can be daunting, but a personal contact helps them feel more at ease and in control.

The first thing to consider would be the care needs of the client. An initial assessment would be made by the agency and a personalized care plan developed to make sure that the client's needs are being met regarding meals, safety, bathroom needs, bathing, housekeeping, transportation, etc. Then a discussion with the family about which of those tasks they are planning to do, and which ones they need assistance with. Also, a financial discussion needs to take place about how much outside care they can afford, and the value from a perspective of preventing caregiver burnout and the respite that will help the family caregiver remain resilient.