Six questions to ask a home care agency
What to ask on the first call, before anyone visits (sample guide).
Help at home for older people, planned visit by visit
Hollybrook Home Care (sample) sends the same small team of carers to older people in Springfield: for getting up, meals, company and bedtime, so they can carry on living at home.
Rather talk first? (555) 014-6620, every day 8:00 to 20:00 (sample).
One client's week, as their carers plan it
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
Morning7:00 to 10:00
08:0045 min
08:0045 min
08:0045 min
08:0045 min
08:0045 min
08:3045 min
08:3045 min
Lunch12:00 to 13:30
12:3030 min
12:3030 min
12:3030 min
12:3030 min
12:3030 min
Teatime15:00 to 18:00
15:0060 min
Call10 min
Bedtime19:30 to 22:00
20:0030 min
20:0030 min
20:0030 min
20:0030 min
20:0030 min
20:0030 min
20:0030 min
20 visits, 1 phone call, 12¼ hours a week, $426.50 at example prices (sample week).
Carer’s visit, start time and minutesPhone check-in callNo visit
Care plans, from two visits a week to live-in
Each plan drawn as its week. Most people start small and add visits when they need them.
Plan
The week, Mon to Sun
Care time
Example price
Company, a walk or the shopping, twice a week, and a Sunday phone call.
2 hours
2 visits and a call a week
$68a week
Getting up, washing and dressing, breakfast and a reminder for morning medicines.
5¼ hours
7 visits a week
$184.50a week
A start and an end to every day, for people who manage well in between.
8¾ hours
14 visits a week
$307.50a week
Morning, lunch, teatime and bedtime, for people who need help through the day.
15¾ hours
28 visits a week
$553.50a week
A carer lives in your home, with daily breaks covered and two-week rotations.
Around the clock
one carer, living in
$1,450from, a week
Example prices: weekdays $34 an hour, weekends $38 an hour.
What a carer helps with
Everyday things that have become hard to do alone, done the way you have always done them.
- Getting up, washing, dressing and getting ready for bed
- Cooking meals and making sure there is enough to drink
- Reminders to take medicines from their labelled pack
- Help with the toilet and continence care, with dignity
- Light housework, laundry and changing the bed
- Shopping, appointments, the library or a walk in the park
- Company: a chat, a game of cards, the crossword
Carers do not give injections, dress wounds or do other nursing tasks. If you need those, we work alongside your community nurse.
A morning visit, step by step
Most morning visits last 45 minutes. This is what happens in them, in the order it usually happens.
1
Knock, then say who it is
The carer knocks and calls out their name before coming in, or uses the key safe if you have agreed one.
2
Ask about the night
How you slept, how you feel today, anything that has changed. Then help to the bathroom, washing and dressing at your pace.
3
Breakfast and morning medicines
Breakfast the way you like it and a hot drink. The carer reminds you to take the morning medicines from their labelled pack, as written in your care plan.
4
Tidy up and write it down
Dishes done, heating and doors checked, then a short note in the care folder so family and the next carer know how the visit went.
The carers
Local people, most of them living within a mile of the clients they visit. Every carer is background-checked, trained and shadowed before visiting alone (sample).
Grace Mensah
Senior carer (sample)
Morning and bedtime visits; dementia care. Speaks English and Twi.
Orchard Row and Elm Park
Tom Kowalski
Carer (sample)
Visiting care and outings; keeps a garden and likes to talk about it.
Hazel Lane and the station side
Priya Shah
Carer (sample)
Lunch and teatime visits; cooks from scratch and from the client’s own recipes.
Mill Street and the north side
Ana Ribeiro
Live-in carer (sample)
Two-week live-in placements. Drives, and is used to living with pets.
Across Springfield
How care starts
Four steps, and nothing to pay until the first visit.
1
Call or send the form
Tell us who needs help and what is getting harder. A care coordinator calls you back, usually the same day (sample).
2
A free home assessment
The coordinator visits for about an hour to talk through the day, the house and what matters to the person who needs care.
3
The care plan, written with you
Which visits, at what times, and what happens on each one, in plain words. You see the week and the price before you agree.
4
The first visit
Often within a few days (sample). The coordinator introduces the carer in person on the first visit.
What care costs
You pay for the time a carer spends with you, by the quarter hour, with no joining fee. You get an itemised invoice every two weeks.
Weekday visits, Monday to Friday
Visits of 30 minutes or longer, billed by the quarter hour
$34 an hour
Weekend visits
$38 an hour
Public holidays
$51 an hour
Phone check-in call
With any plan of two visits or more a week
Free
Live-in care
One carer living in, breaks covered
From $1,450 a week
Home assessment
About an hour, at home
Free
Example prices.
Ways to pay
Paying yourself
Most families pay privately, by card or bank transfer. You can stop or change visits with a week’s notice.
Long-term care insurance
Many policies pay towards home care. We send the invoices and care notes your insurer asks for.
Veterans’ benefits
Some veterans and their spouses can get help with home care costs. Ask us how to apply.
State programs
Medicaid waiver programs cover home care for some people. We can tell you who to contact in Springfield (sample).
Questions families ask
Will it be the same carer every time?
We keep each client to a small team of two to four carers, so you know who is coming. The care folder and the rota say who it will be (sample).
How short can a visit be?
Thirty minutes. We do not book shorter visits, because washing, dressing or a meal cannot be done well in fifteen minutes.
Can care start straight after a hospital stay?
Often, yes. Tell us the discharge date when you call; we try to do the home assessment before or on the day your relative comes home.
What if a carer is late or ill?
The office calls you if a carer will be more than 15 minutes late, and sends someone from the same team if they are ill.
Can we change the visits later?
Yes. Visits can be added, moved or stopped with a week’s notice. We review the care plan with you every three months, or sooner if things change.
Guides for families
Making a house easier to live in
Small changes that often help an older person manage at home (sample guide).
Medicines and home care: what carers can do
Reminders, help with packs and what stays with the pharmacist and the nurse (sample guide).
Every care week starts empty
A care coordinator visits you at home, free of charge, to talk through the day and plan the visits with you. There is nothing to sign at the assessment.
Your week, before the assessment
At the home assessment we fill it in with you: which days, which times, how long.