Caregiver Help

How do I know how many hours I need a caregiver each day?

This can be a tough question to answer if you don’t have any experience in health care or convalescent care. Caregivers come with a variety of abilities and can perform many different tasks. So, the first thing you need to ask yourself is what duties you need the caregiver to perform.

The first question is how many hours is the person or patient alone each day? Does anyone live with the person who needs the assistance? If so, how many hours can they care for the person after they come home from their regular job. Having an elderly person at home can be just as hard as having a small child. An elderly person with dementia may need a senior companion when it comes to issues of safety. Often it is no more trouble than having one more family member, but a person who cannot do anything for themself will need to have a caregiver 24 hours a day.

Look at the person who needs the caregiver. What is the actual problem? Do you need non medical home care or professional medical assistance? Is it a physical or mental problem that requires a caregiver? Are they able to walk or are they confined to the bed or wheelchair? Do you need someone to bathe them and turn them every two hours or just someone to talk to them and keep them safe? Can they eat by themselves or do they need to be fed through a feeding tube or with swallowing precautions? What other medical or non medical needs do they have?

After you figure out what you need the caregiver to do try to do it yourself a couple of times. How long did it take you? Do you think you could get quicker over time? This will help you determine how many hours of caregiver help you need. Remember also that most medical and non medical home care agencies have a 2 to 4 hour minimum time requirement.