Making Sure Hired Caregivers Treat Your Senior Well: 3 Advanced Tips from DailyCaring.com

Make sure hired caregivers treat your senior well

It can be hard to trust a new caregiver that you’ve hired to help take care of your older adult. You might be concerned because you don’t know this person very well.

We’ve previously talked about some simple ways to keep an eye on your hired caregiver. Now, we’ve got 3 advanced tips to help you get the info you need to feel confident that your senior is getting good care.

3 advanced ways to make sure your senior gets good care

Here are three methods that give you more information about your older adult’s hired caregiver helper and how well they interact. These tips help you spot red flags and prevent serious problems.

Keep background checks up to date

Even if the initial background check didn’t show any problems, it’s a good idea to do it again every 6 to 12 months. This keeps you aware of any changes.

Check their name against national databases, local court records, and state elder abuse registries (if available). Verify their Social Security number to see if they’ve used any other names. If they drive your senior around, check their driving record too.

If you hired through an agency, find out how often the agency refreshes background checks and which databases they check against to make sure the checks are comprehensive.

Be alert for signs of trouble

If the caregiver isn’t doing a good job, there will probably be some warning signals. If you see things that make you uneasy, check into them and keep track of repeat occurrences. Sure, accidents happen once in a while, but frequent accidents point to a problem.

Some examples of red flags:

The caregiver ignores your instructions and does things when and how they choose.
You can’t reach the caregiver when they’re with your older adult.
The caregiver is obviously focused on their phone, TV, or computer.
Your senior’s personal hygiene is being neglected.
Your older adult shows unexplainable signs of physical or mental trauma, like bruising, sudden change of behavior (fear, agitation), etc.
The caregiver doesn’t seem to care about household safety.
You see multiple negative reviews of the caregiver on reputable websites.

Use video cameras

Monitoring with video cameras is often used to discourage abuse. The point isn’t to catch someone in the act, but to prevent it from happening in the first place.

If you plan to use cameras to monitor your caregiver, be upfront about it when they’re hired. Honest caregivers usually won’t mind being recorded if they’re aware that it’s happening. But they might be mad if they find out later that you’ve been doing it secretly.

Bottom line

If you’re concerned or feeling guilty about hiring someone to help care for your older adult, these three tips will reassure you. When you know that your senior has their needs met and is being treated with kindness, it puts your mind at ease and reduces stress.

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