When I was caring for my father I found that getting quality and compatible home healthcare aides was extremely difficult. Many of the articles and guides I used in my search for care were technical and emphasized quality, background checks and needs assessment.

These are very important factors when considering home healthcare agencies but they leave out the human interaction that occurs in a caregiving situation. I want to share some lessons I learned as a caregiver which will help people in their home healthcare search.

Know the Patient – The key to finding good and compatible home healthcare is to know the patient. Remember, this a difficult time for both the care receiver and the caregiver. As I noted in an earlier blog, telling a person who has been independent for their entire adult life that they need assistance is very hard. It is important to know what the patient will want and expect from an aide. Some questions to think about in this process:

• Has the patient led an active life and do they want to continue to live one?
• Is a sense of humor important to the patient?
• Does the patient respond best to a proactive or reactive aide?
• Is the patient homebound or can they leave the house? If they are not homebound, do they want to go out regularly?
• Do they have special dietary needs?

Research and Interview Multiple Agencies – You want to make sure that you choose the best quality agency possible. I did this by choosing Medicare approved agencies since they must meet stringent federal standards. The eCareDiary Care Search Engine is only made up of Medicare approved and state licensed agencies.

I made a major mistake with our first home health care agency which was not interviewing multiple agencies. We had used an agency temporarily many years before my father needed full time home care and I went straight to them for help. It turned out to be a mistake. The aides were not compatible with my father’s strong personality and we went through aide after aide. This was a horrible situation for everyone and added stress to an already difficult situation.

After months of this, a friend recommended another agency and their aides were far more compatible with his personality. This helped us to get stability with his care routine and made all of us much happier.

How You Pay for Care Can Limit Your Options – If you are paying for care through Medicare, Medicaid or a long term care insurance policy you will only get reimbursed if you use approved providers. The advantage of this is they are all state licensed and meet the requirements to participate in government or private insurance programs. They are not fly-by-night operations.

The downside is if you find a home healthcare aide who is not licensed but is compatible with the patient you will have to pay for him or her out pocket. This happened with my father who had a long term care insurance policy and found someone he liked who was not licensed. He decided to stick with her despite the fact he could not get reimbursed by his long term care policy. This is expensive and many people either cannot or do not want to pay for this expense.

Conclusion - In the quest to find best quality care many caregivers forget the human dimension of home healthcare. The good news is you don’t have to compromise quality to find compatibility. It is possible to find both and when you do it will relieve stress on you and your loved one.