You’re worried sick because you can’t find a good caregiver for your aging parent.

You want to keep your parent home and out of a nursing home as long as possible but your parent needs 24 hour  care and you’ve got a job and  a family.  To make matters worse,  you live out of state.

You’ve searched and searched for good caregivers but you’ve only  interviewed people that you don’t  really trust and you wouldn’t  leave with your helpless parent.   

What can you do?

Now real help is easily available on the Internet.  Here is a list of sites which will not only help you find the care you need, but also can give you a tremendous amount of extra information to help you get through this difficult time in your life.

1. Eldercarelink

This is a free eldercare matching service which can help you find qualified eldercare services in your area.  (It receives fees from participating providers, not the clients.)

All you have to do is fill out a brief survey form about your needs. 

For example, do you need non-medical home care, home health care, companionship, adult daycare, transportation, or household support services?

Eldercarelink can also find services for financial/investment advice, estate planning, long term care planning, care management and family counseling.

The survey will also ask you what other services you may need such as wheelchairs, canes, diabetic supplies, prescription services, and nebulizer treatments as well as meal preparation.

Go to Eldercarelink

2. AGIS Assist Guide Information Services

Founded in 1998 by Kevin Sypniewski because of his own family’s care giving needs, the service has grown to include massive resources for the challenges of aging.

AGIS also has a brief survey you can take based on your zip code.  This will help you find care giving services in your immediate area.

There is an added bonus of where to find local governmental help and community resources.

Some of the real gems of this site are the checklists for general care giving, home care support services, home safety and improvement, finding and assessing housing, help for family caregivers, health, legal and financial as well as end of life services.

For example Choosing a Geriatric Care Manager Checklist gives you the questions you should ask such as  "if providing routine monitoring, how frequently do you visit the care recipient? How long  are the visits?  How do you supervise others working for you?  Are you licensed by the state?"

There are also  an Adult Daycare  Center Checklist and an At Home Care Information Form.

Other sections such as Working with Doctors & Hospitals, Health Screening and Diagnostic Facilities, Needs Assessments, such as evaluating the older person’s driving skills are  information packed resources chocked full of quick step by step facts anyone caring for the elderly needs to know.

Last but not least, AGIS has a definition list of all the terms you should be familiar with such as "geriatrician", "respite care," and "elder rights & assistance".

Go to AGIS Assist Guide Information Services

AARP also provides a lot of helpful information about eldercare on its vast  website.

What is different here is the large library of  videos which are free and easy to use. 

There is a good video on the basics of how to find a good home care worker.  It covers how do to your own assessment if you don’t want to go through an agency, and what kind of person you will be looking for, plus the level of care you will need. 

The AARP checklist points out another vitally  important tip.  You will need to do a criminal background check of the caregiver.

You can’t leave your parent with anyone who does not have good references or has a troubled background.  There is too much at stake with your parent’s helplessness.

Another important tip from AARP is you are the boss of your parent’s care giving operation. Be prepared to let the caregiver go if your expectations are not met.  It is your responsibility as the boss of your parent’s care to hire, and if needed, to also fire.

Go to AARP

Years ago, when my grandmother needed 24/7 care for three years we had a lot of difficulty finding good caregivers.  It was as challenging as running a business and perhaps in many ways it was harder for my Dad, who was an only child.    But thanks  to the internet and  emerging websites such as Eldercarelink, AARP and AGIS  many of those problems have been solved.    

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