If you are reading this blog, you are likely one of the millions of adult children who have come to the difficult realization that their parents are no longer safe at home without additional support. This is a tough pill to swallow, both because as children we often look to our parents for support and it's hard when the tables turn, and because most of us have never thought about, let alone prepared for this moment.
When considering home-based support for the first time there are many factors to consider. These include:
- How much care does my parent need?
- What kind of care do they need- private duty care, home health care, or personal care?
- How much does it cost and how do I/we pay for it? Does the insurance cover it?
How can you tell the difference between low and high quality home care providers
3 Markers (or Indicators) of a Quality Home Care Provider
1. Training Standards
You’ll want to look for home care providers who take training seriously and invest deeply in training and education for their caregiving staff.
Ask agencies what their training standards are.
- What certifications do they require of their caregivers?
- Do they provide any ongoing training?
- What about peer mentorship?
- Do they train on special conditions like dementia or diabetes?
This last question is especially important if your parent has a specific medical condition that needs knowledgeable attention.
2. Caregiver Turnover and Tenure
A high-quality home care agency that invests in its caregivers should have a lower turnover. Caregiver turnover (caregivers who leave their jobs or leave the field altogether) is a major problem in the home care field. Every year between 60-85% of an agency’s caregivers leave for other agencies or jobs. This is often a marker of poor job quality.
High-quality home care providers will also have caregivers that stay with them for years (have long tenure). The blog, What Makes a New York City’s Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA) Home Care Job a Good Job shares more markers of what a good home care provider does.
Like training standards, you should feel empowered to ask an agency what their turnover rate is, and if it's high, why.
3. Customer Experience
When you call an agency, do they ask you specific questions about your needs or the needs of your loved ones? Do they listen to understand? Do they give you adequate time and take the time to meaningfully answer your questions and not just “sell”?
This is a more objective and highly personal measure of quality, but it can’t be overlooked. Your initial experience and the gut instincts you feel are often great measures of what your overall experience will be. If they don’t have time for you now in the sales process, they are not likely to have time for you when you have questions or concerns down the line. The only caveat to this rule is to make sure you maintain reasonable expectations about your upfront asks and demands on time.
CHCA works hard to provide the highest quality of care possible. We do that by investing in our caregiving workforce. We ensure that:
- All our caregivers, including those new to the job, are properly trained and prepared to provide the best care to our clients with confidence and compassion.
- We put a lot of thought and care into how to compensate our caregivers and provide comprehensive benefits to make our Cooperative a place where caregivers want to stay long-term.
- We provide intentional, attentive supervision and support which is core to our mission here at CHCA. It is important to us that our caregivers - new employees and long-term worker-owners, alike - know that they’re not alone.
- We respect and recognize the importance of caregivers!
- As a worker-owned company, we are committed to providing high-quality service to our customers and great employment to our workers, putting our workers at the center of our business decisions.
- We care about our caregiver’s interests, goals, and futures.
We also invest in our clients. We understand your loved one’s needs and provide an in-home caregiver who is trained, available, and consistently supported by our agency. We ensure that our office staff are readily available to address any need, question, or concern.
That’s the cooperative difference in home care.
