Deciding to hire home care services for a loved one might feel like a difficult decision. While you will spend time talking about it with your elderly loved one, and respect his or her decision about the proper level of care, when it comes time to choose the actual in home care provider who will work directly with the senior patient, you certainly want to make sure that he or she has the experience, background, and integrity to do a great job.

If you choose to hire a caregiver as an independent contractor (meaning that you are not going to go through a home care services agency), then it will be your responsibility to conduct a background check, reference check, and other methods of interviewing to ensure that your loved one gets the best level of care.

What about when you hire through an agency? Are their methods of hiring all that important? Or should you get an understanding about how this agencies sets out to find their caregivers and what their overall requirements are when it comes to the in-home care service providers that they employ?

Always take charge of your care, or the care of your loved ones.

While agencies, for the most part, do their due diligence when it comes to hiring and training, as of this moment there are no universal requirements for home care services agencies across the country with regard to hiring, training, or even certification. That means while most agencies will vet out their potential hires thoroughly, including conducting criminal and other background checks, that doesn’t mean that they all do.

It also means that while some agencies train their employees on a regular basis regarding the best home care methods, not all of them do that.

Therefore, it is a good idea to find out what kind of hiring practices the agency you are considering uses employs to find and hire their caregivers. An in-home care provider is the most important aspect of senior care for your loved one at this time and it is essential that you hire the right one.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions of the agency administration staff. Find out what kind of requirements there are to be employed by them. Find out what kind of training, if any, their employees receive. Demand that the caregiver who is assigned to your loved one has experience. Keep in mind, though, that the home care services agency will not be able to share personal information about their caregivers with you, such as references, addresses, and such. Focus on their hiring practices and you should find the right agency to serve your loved one’s needs best.