How do you identify a Good Caregiver?

If we all know that an experienced and knowledgeable caregiver will do justice to the demands and care needs of your loved ones then, what exactly should be reviewed before hiring a caregiver? The virtues and the attributes that a caregiver possesses make him/her better than other caregivers and apart from the qualification or a degree in the professional course; everyone seeks the latter for their loved ones. So, let us now see what makes a caregiver worthy of being hired by the people for their loved older adults.

• Respectful and Polite: With age, people get frustrated and impatient. Older people are more likely to get cranky given the medications they need to take. Caring for the older adult can be taxing especially when being taken care of by a working professional. A family member who works the whole day might return grumpy and get frustrated with the older adult. This is the reason why older adults require family caregivers who are polite and respectful. Older adults expect nothing but to be valued. So, having a caregiver who respects his or her clients is one of the most important points to be considered.

• Authentic and Reliable: Many caregivers will be responsible for ensuring that their clients eat, drink and take medications on time. If a caregiver does this, it means the caregiver is reliable and authentic. To see whether the home caregiver is trustworthy, you can ask for a demo service for a few days.

• Empathetic: Empathy is one of the virtues which are deemed most important. This is because aging can be difficult and confusing. To care for older adults, one has to be empathetic towards them. The carer must be able to connect with the client to help them carry their basic activities in a hustle-free manner.

• Patient and Responsible: Elders can be frustrating and who better can tell than the one living closely with them. Caregivers taking care of elders have to be patient and strong enough to take on the frustration of the elders with utmost patience. Many times, accomplishing simple tasks also gets tiring because of the long hours involved in completing those. A patient and responsible caregiver can handle the situation calmly even amid chaos and perform his or her duty responsibly. 

• Practical and Result-oriented: The caregivers may often find themselves getting involved in-home care as well as personal care services like bathing, dressing wound, and maintaining personal hygiene. All such activities require knowledge and are to be performed with utmost care. So, the one who can perform his/her duties well and whose services result in a better outcome can be termed as a good caregiver.

• Observant and Caring: Caregiver must be caring is something very obvious to most, but not all are caring and observant. Having far-sightedness is a vital attribute for taking care of older adults because picking up signs of things going wrong is not everyone’s cup of tea. This can only be done by a good caregiver who can sense the underlying problem and work on it in time. 

• Experience and Qualification: The experience of a caregiver always acts as a cherry on the cake. The experienced and well-qualified caregiver will be able to handle your loved ones with intelligence and a proper understanding of the situation. Qualification is necessary because it will bring in authenticity and build trust too.

So, finding a caregiver who has all the above qualities might get difficult, but it is certainly not impossible. To find the caregiver who has all the above-mentioned virtues, one has to dive deep into research and talk to several home care agencies. One can also reach out to the people who avail such in-home care non-medical services and seek their guidance for the same. Word of mouth and talking to the near and dear ones will assist in finding a good caregiver for your loved ones. Finding the one who suits your needs, budget, and schedule and even meets the demands of the elders will do justice to the task of finding a potential caregiver.