Before you hire a home care agency or caregiver, be sure to look at these 8 points. Click to play to video or read the points below.
- Make sure they provide all services needed
Some home care services may provide a simple companion service such as watching over your senior and providing general assistance. But at times, it may be important to get help with other tasks such as bathing, grooming & dressing, meal preparation, medication reminders, transportation, companionship and 24 hour care.- At Family Bridges, we provide all of these services and much more.
- Make sure they perform background checks and screen their caregivers
- Since you will be hiring caregivers to care for your elder in their home, you will want to make sure they are a trusted and loyal individual. One of the best ways to do this is by making sure they had a background check and were screened properly.
- Unfortunately, we find that many agencies don’t take this step.
- We at Family Bridges only hire caregivers that pass fingerprinted background checks, and are qualified in other ways such as training, experience and compassion. Choosing a caregiving agency that handles this eliminates the need of having you review dozens of resumes and pay for background checks on each person. That itself can be a time consuming process.
- Ensure your senior will be safe
- In addition to having a trusted caregiver assisting your senior’s every actions, you will also want to make sure that caregiver is trained to focus on safety.
- At Family Bridges, every caregiver is trained with best safety practices and our case manager regularly visits current clients in their homes to ensure their needs are being met. Our caregivers will keep you updated on your senior’s current status for a worry-free experience.
- Do they allow you to choose the caregiver?
- Not many agencies do this, but we feel it is important to provide the option for you to interview and pick a caregiver from our team.
- Although we make it a priority to match the best caregiver with the needs of your senior, you may be the better person to know which personalities your senior will be most comfortable with.
- Take note of how much they charge per hour
- Price is typically charged hourly and it is important to get a great value from home care. A price that is even slightly lower than a competitor will add up to a lot of money saved in the long run.
- At Family Bridges, we aim to provide the best value. Our hourly costs are typically in the middle price range of local agencies and lower than the national average.
- See if they belong to the Better Business Bureau and check their profile for past issues
- Not all agencies belong to the BBB. But it can be a good sign if they do belong for a little extra peace of mind. Some agencies will display their accreditation on their website and linked to their profile. We encourage everyone to review an agency’s profile for any complaints and to verify the company’s legitimacy.
- Family Bridges is a BBB accredited agency. If you search the BBB’s website, you will notice it currently rates us as an A+ company with zero complaints.
- Make sure they know their industry and belong to similar organizations
- A company that belongs to a senior care related organization can further confirm they are knowledgeable about providing quality care, they are operating professionally and meeting industry standards.
- Family Bridges is currently a member of the “Home Care Association of America” and accredited by several government organizations which can be seen on our website.
- Read about what others are saying about the company
- If a friend didn’t refer you to a certain agency, the next best thing is to read reviews and find a company with positive testimonials. You can search review websites such as Google Plus and Yelp.com, among others to see what people are saying.
- At Family Bridges, we are constantly hearing our clients say great things about our services. In addition to many 5 star ratings listed on various review sites, the third party satisfaction research and quality assurance firm, Home Care Pulse, has praised us with many awards. Family Bridges has earned the “Best of Home Care, Provider of Choice” award in 2011 and all the way up until the time of this video in 2017. That’s 7 years in a row! And we are very proud of that. The Home Care Pulse awards are given to agencies with the best feedback received from independent phone call interviews from past and current clients.
- Through these interviews, some of our clients have said the following testimonials:
- Bob T. writes, “Family Bridges staff has bent over backwards to accommodate us. They are outstanding. If they didn’t do what was promised we wouldn’t have them back. That being said, they have done exactly what we have hired them to do. We are very satisfied. I appreciate their caregivers. They are conscientious and overall they are just good at what they do”
- Jeanette M. states, “I was using a national franchise company before…. Family Bridges offered everything I needed. I chose to go with Family Bridges because they were willing to give me what I wanted. “My caregiver is excellent. She is all I could ask for. We hug each other when she comes and goes. Being a caregiver isn’t just a job for her; she actually cares and wants to help me. She is just perfect.”
- Cheryl states, “We had tried another agency, and they kept sending different people. Family Bridges has been so great, and they have been sending the same people consistently. It’s worked out very well. The caregivers are very nice, polite and helpful. My father really enjoys having them there for company and companionship. It works out very nicely.”
We hope this was a helpful video as you search for a caregiver. We truly think Family Bridges is one of the best available in the Cincinnati, Dayton and Northern Kentucky area.
Please contact us by phone at (888) 900-0048 or by emailing us through our website here.