If you are a busy person caring for a loved one, finding good quality home care support will be important to you. Whether you need full-time care or a little extra care to fill the gaps when you can’t be there, it’s a big decision. Here is a bit of guidance on how to interview care workers, and what sort of questions you may want to ask them that will help decide who best meets your needs.
Here is a bit of guidance on how to interview care workers, and what sort of questions you may want to ask them that will help decide who best meets your needs.
There are a few things to work out before interviewing any care worker candidates. Identifying what you want and the type of support required is an important consideration.
Having a home care worker located nearby that services people in your neighbourhood, means they will have less problems providing back-up when they are unavailable. With Better Caring’s platform you are able to search by postcode and select candidates who live nearby to your loved one.
Home care workers need to be covered by public liability insurances and have undergone criminal checks. Those who are self-employed, are responsible for organising their own income tax and superannuation. Understanding how your care worker is employed and paid is critical to the safety of your loved one and your potential liability. Better Caring makes it easy to employ independent care workers on a contractor basis. There is no misunderstanding of a care worker being mistaken for an employee – and all the legal obligations (e.g., tax and super payments) that go with that. We cover those operating on the platform with public liability, professional indemnity and group accident insurances. All care workers are carefully screened before being accepted onto the platform.
A big need for many families is to provide transportation for their loved one to doctors’ appointments, physical therapy sessions, church or temple, social events, entertainment and recreation. You will need to decide if you want the care worker to use their own vehicle or yours. To avoid liability, if care workers are using their own cars you will need to check if their vehicle is insured (we recommend siting the paper yourself). If using your family’s vehicle, make sure to verify appropriate coverage with your car insurance provider. Better Caring makes it easy to identify whether a care worker has their own car, Driver’s Licence, car insurance – this is clearly displayed on Better Caring’s care worker profiles.
There are three levels of care provided by Better Caring (and other home care agencies): domestic and social care, personal care and nursing care. Domestic and social care includes meal preparation, light housekeeping and assistance with daily activities such as letter writing, reading, and entertainment. This level of care is designed to provide peace of mind for the client and the family. At the domestic level of care the carer generally does not touch the client.
Personal Care includes the basic Activities of Daily Living – eating, bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, and continence. This level involves hands-on care and requires a higher level of training than companion care.
Nursing Care is provided by a licensed skilled professional such as a nurse, licensed practical nurse, physical therapist, or occupational therapist. Better Caring makes it easy to identify care workers who have the right level of skills, experience and qualifications needed to support your loved one. All Better Caring care worker profiles clearly display their background, diplomas and services offered. After hours support is critical The rule of thumb in home care is that the worst situations only occur nights, weekends, or on holidays.
Home care is a 24/7/365! You will want to have an understanding of the availability of your home care worker outside of regular business hours, and how contactable they will be. Better Caring care workers publish their hourly rates for weekend, overnight and after hour care – making it clear upfront what the potential costs would be if you needed additional support outside of regular business hours. These costs are very competitive when compared to traditional home care agencies – often up to half the cost.
Providing home care is expensive and home agencies will charge you accordingly. Independent care workers set their own fees – and these can vary considerably.
Experienced care workers provide a higher quality service and accordingly usually charge more. In the end, you get the kind of service you pay for. Better Caring makes invoicing procedures and payments easy. We invoice weekly and expect to be paid immediately so that we can pay the care worker immediately. If you don’t pay, the care worker doesn’t get paid. Paying on time will keep your valuable care worker happy and motivated. It’s a relationship Inviting someone into your home to provide care can be a great experience for you, your family, and the care worker. You will become an inter-dependent group of people who each have a role. Identify a quality home care worker that will support that relationship.
Better Caring screens all care workers operating on its platform before accepting them into the Better Caring community as an independent care worker. We check their Police/criminal record, and we contact their referees for a reference. For care workers offering personal care services, they are also required to provide relevant qualifications, which we check. We’re picky because we only want the best care workers – so we don’t accept all care workers who apply to join the platform.
Nevertheless, when seeking to hire a care worker, your own due diligence is advised. We recommend you interview candidates carefully before hiring. An initial interview can be conducted over the phone, and if satisfactory you can then meet him or her in person (this could be in a public place like a coffee shop if you have concerns). If things feel like a good fit, you will then want to introduce the care worker to your loved one. What tasks do you want the care worker to perform? It’s important to know what tasks you want the care worker to do.
Before conducting the interview, you will need to provide the care worker with some basic information about the job you want done, that he/she can determine if he/she has the right skills for the job. Basic information to provide to a care worker before the interview includes your relationship to the person needing care; how old the person is; why he or she needs a support service; whether he or she has a disability or other health condition; where the person needing care lives; what days and hours are needed; if any manual lifting is required; if there is any equipment to be used such as bed lifts, incontinence pads etc; the types of care and support being sought: showering, cooking, cleaning etc; and whether a Drivers Licence and/or car is required.
If you have been happy with the responses gained during the interview, the next step is for you to set up a time for the prospective care worker to meet with the person who needs the care. This will ensure that they both feel comfortable with one another and that their personalities will fit well together.
