-
Any luck finding caregivers?
While I muster the energy to dig out my ID to hopefully remove the hold on my Indeed account (they doubt the employer,) I’ve gotta ask again, do you have any other avenues to find caregivers?
It feels harder than ever to even post the job. I’ve done Facebook with no response, the tech college, and even posted at a local café. Radio silence even though the wage increased to $19 an hour January 1st. The bulletin boards around town have disappeared since Covid. Most websites require jumping through hoops because of spammers.
Any success with care.com? I’m checking into it now but not optimistic since I live in such a rural community, and again I don’t know how difficult or costly it is to establish an account.
-
35 Replies
-
Sidenote, I’m about ready to go door to door with a flyer but it’s -4F out right now so that option is off the table. Brrrr!
-
I’m embarking on the hiring journey next month and am absolutely dreading it. I don’t know where to find caregivers anymore! Have you tried a newspaper ad?
-
Maybe you’ll have better luck than I do. I’m hesitant to run an ad. For one it’s ridiculously expensive. Plus the quality of candidates last time was…interesting to put it nicely. Finally got my indeed.com account unlocked. I’ve had a few candidates, but when I try to message them I get no response. Not sure if I’m doing something wrong or they’re just not interested. After looking more into care.com I have to pay for a subscription to even send a message.
What’s your process for hiring?
-
Believe it or not, I’ve found my caregivers through word of mouth. I’d rather hire someone who knows a friend of a friend of a friend so I can get more information on them before I actually go through the hiring process. I’ve been lucky; however, finding people this way is getting harder and harder. I’m going to start looking again next month so fingers crossed. Rhode Island is small and everyone knows everyone so I’m cautiously optimistic. 😂
-
-
-
Also, I’ve never tried care.com but it’s always in the back of my mind!
-
Hi there, I’m from Australia! Do you guys not get government funding for your care? I put ads in employment agency websites which I pay for from the government funding.
-
Hearing Australia makes me wish it was summer! Here in the US care really differs from state to state and depends on what programs you qualify for. Unfortunately a lot depends on your income. For myself Medicaid does cover my care, but I’m responsible for finding my caregivers. Sometimes there are grants that can be used to cover advertising but largely it’s on us. Do you get a yearly budget to work with?
-
Yes, I get a yearly budget. I run my pays every fortnight. Provide them with the pay receipts and withdraw money to match. I set my own pay rates against the maximum pay rate that I am funded for. The gap between what they give me and what I pay caregivers I use to pay for superannuation, taxation and insurance. If I’m careful with my budget. I can pay for other things as well.
-
-
-
FWIW, MDA Quest is seeking speakers within their local ambassador program (I’m one) to talk specifically about this very topic of finding and securing caregivers. I’d imagine since they’re seeking speakers now, they will have this as either a live discussion or podcast soon. Keep an eye out, but I will try to remember to respond here once I see something scheduled.
-
Definitely keep us posted!
-
-
I have this problem and it’s super annoying. I tried to use other job sites like Snagajob, for example, but they kicked me off because I’m not a company.
Indeed has been my only option and it kinda sucks. I’m even sponsoring my posts. But still don’t get very good applications.
My brother and I put this little hiring site together. https://watsoncaregivers.com
-
I like how this site is laid out. Do you guys have any luck using it?
-
We have an admin area. It helps us sort through the applications we get and is pretty useful for that. But the quality of applications is pretty low. Most of our traffic comes from Indeed.
-
-
The local tech school was one of my most promising avenues. The hurdles to advertising when you’re not a business are next to impossible though. I understand they’re trying to protect their students, but it makes it difficult for sure.
Not quite techy enough to set up my own website. Awesome idea though.
When you respond to someone through Indeed, how do you usually go about it?
-
I usually look through the applications for people I’m interested in interviewing via Zoom. Then if I’m ready to proceed with someone I invite them to my house to meet me in person. After that I get them hired on.
-
Yep!
That system works for me as well!
-
-
Guys, I am afraid you are following the wrong way. I understand that you are capable of creating your own website. I am an IT person as well. But do you have the capability of promoting your website as much, so a lot of people who are interested in those opportunities would see it? I apologize for my skepticism. I am very doubtful about that. I think our goal is to use well-developed sources of communication. I am in the same situation, and I am very concerned.
-
That’s the trouble I’m finding with the agency as well. They have their own portal where you can post open positions. Problem with that is the only traffic it gets are employees actively seeking more hours. We all know how common that is.
-
-
-
Finding caregivers has become an absolute nightmare. It can take months to find anyone, and half the time the people who show up decide it is too much work…too far…pay too low and never return or tell you that they quit. I am lucky i finally found two good reliable attendants…but am constantly afraid one or the other will get sick or be out for some length of time. State agencies just make things harder with ridiculous requirements and regulations no attendant is willing to go through and they are deaf, dumb and blind to the problem. Your best hope is through friends and relatives if you have them…otherwise your on your own. I keep a sign outside my house year round for the agency that handles my caregivers as they advertise constantly for workers and cannot find anyone .It causes more stress in my life then all other aspects of my disability combined…it is a problem that keeps getting worse.
-
I’ve never had as much trouble as I have now. If it wasn’t the middle of winter I’d seriously be tempted to hand out help wanted flyers door to door. Did you find your two reliable workers through word of mouth? I’m always a little hesitant to do that as well because if it doesn’t work out I don’t want it to ruin two relationships.
-
So, the one caregiver I have had quite a long time, and he had to pickup caring for me 7 days a week, morning and night when i lost a caregiver who worked morning Monday through Friday. He was getting very worn out. Agency sent out a total of about six people over three months if not more. They all said I lived too far away to make it worth their time. One spoke no English at all…his interpreter left shortly after dropping him off…got scolded in shower because couldn’t understand the word ‘hot’. We posted fliers, even at churches not attend, talked to neighbors, posted online, Facebook, Craigslist, local groups …everywhere. Is still a sign in front of house on fairly busy road advertising my agency because we allowed them to advertise. Finally my dad was grocery shopping and bumped into a former caregivers mother and found out that she moved back locally and was looking for a part time job. After all that, the state nearly fired her on us because the day the state nurse was out she had no sitter for her kid. I nearly took the state to court and i think i pretty much threatened a hunger strike in front of DHS unless they backed off.
-
-
-
Throughout my years of dealing with this issue just as everyone here has, I have discovered what works best for me, is more hands on deck helping for shorter amounts of time. For example, I have three night gals that alter helping me to bed. They have other jobs, but are perfectly fine with being hired for a short time. If they had to commit more time, I’m certain they probably wouldn’t do it. It can be a pain for me managing the daily schedules, but it works. I currently have 6 helpers who I can rotate when I need to. If one gets sick or has to be out of town, it’s easier to manage having that much backup. I also live in a very rural area, where everyone knows everyone, and that is different from many areas. Even if you currently have one or two caregivers, consider bringing more on board to be ready for the future.
-
Do you mean shorter time as fewer days, or fewer hours? I’ve seen it both ways, some folks prefer a chunk of time where others prefer little snippets. I try to be flexible but that’s backfired on me as well. Right now I’d be happy if I could find one or two. It’s for every other weekend though, so that’s the hesitation maybe.
-
I’m curious about how you make this work. Most potential PCA’s I talk to are looking for full time hours. And when I do have part-time positions, people either don’t take them seriously or they end up working other jobs in addition to mine such that they are not available for filling in for others.
-
-
My son is 40 with SMA 2. It is hard for him to do too much typing, but we both felt we needed to respond. Kevin has a trach and part-time ventilator. He uses nurses.
IN Ohio, almost everyone with specialized disability-related needs is on a Medicaid Waiver Program that will pay for aides/nurses. Everyone has the option of using an agency or going through independent providers. We all recently lobbied our state legislature for an appreciable rate increase. Many went to testify in person or submitted written testimony. Aides and nurses both got appreciable increases — 30%. That has probably been one of the reasons, we are finally seeing more providers.
So adults who are on Waivers, will go through managed care organizations. There is a Medicaid Site both providers and recipients can sign up for. Also Independent Providers also have their own site for providers and recipients for searching..
It is not a perfect system. However, there are options available to hook up with the appropriate providers. His schedule will always have holes, but it has gotten better.
-
I am in Ohio, too. What is that independent providers’ website you referred to? Thank you in advance.
-
Thanks for the info. I’m scheduled (finally) to meet with my representative next week. Any tips or suggestions?
-
-
I’m not sure if I should be posting on this one, since staffing is quite different where I live, but the only thing that has made this nightmare a little less insufferable for me was establishing a long-term professional relationship with a reliable agency. They know my needs better than I do by now and they send me the right person most of the times. The only problem is that this might take weeks or even months depending on the time of year. Tourism is a big industry here, so they all prefer seasonal employment in hotels, restaurants and bars from May till October. Their income, with tips included, is double as high as what I could possibly offer. So, you only stand a chance of hiring someone in Autumn and, even so, there’s always the risk they leave you in Spring to embark on exciting adventures on the scenic Greek islands! I’m not much help, I know, but I hope you can take some comfort in knowing that things are just as bad in other parts of the world too lol!
-
It’s funny you should mention establishing a long-term relationship with an agency. I’ve actually been with this one for over 20 years. Last fall they denied an overtime request for a caregiver to attend an appointment with me. I was livid because they approved it without hesitation the previous year plus they know how difficult staffing is. My appeal was successful, but how frustrating.
Interesting how tourism plays into staffing. I’d never have thought of that. Here I usually find staffing easier in the summer. Except over holidays of course. Just curious, how cold do your winters get?
-
That’s really frustrating! On what grounds did they deny it? Do you pay them an annual fee? My agency gets paid every time I hire someone through them, and if a PCA they send me leaves within 6 months, they send me another one at no extra cost. This way they take a keen interest in finding me reliable candidates (to the extent that they exist).
Winters are getting warmer and warmer every year. The impact of climate change I guess. The lowest it’s hit so far this winter was 9 C (48 F). And that was only for 3 days. Now it’s back to 18 C (64 F).
-
-
-
My son soon to be 47 recently had an attendant ,get hurt while not working so has been off for 9 months. Getting someone has been a night mare!!! Even at $ 22 an hour here in Ontario . ( recent increase coming in Feb) resumes , references are not reliable at all. Interviews often help weed some unsuitable applicants out , he makes sure the person has a three month contract so if things are not working by that time he can legally let them go without a lot of issues. One add had 147 people look at it and 8 ask for more information/interview etc. Even word of mouth hasn’t worked due to the amount he can pay through the program he is on. YES I know he has complex care (vented, gastric fed etc ) but with nursing homes, hospitals and other such places all short of staff this has be come the worst ever.
-
I’m sorry to hear you’re struggling as well. It sure isn’t easy. Thanks for sharing!
-
-
Care.com review:
I recently ended a one year subscription to care.com thinking that it would at least give me a fighting chance to find someone. Nope.
Biggest problem being that there isn’t a specific category that makes sense to “post” your ad in. Care.com seems to focus on specific groups, mostly Seniors who need care, and Children that need babysitters. Senior caregivers seemed to be the closest category to put my ad in so I tried several different variations over the course of the year. I got lots of responses and “applicants” but most of them did not even bother to read the details I clearly stated on the ads, and were confused when I emailed them to again state the details that were already in my ad. 99% of them demanded compensation that was at least 50% higher than I was offering, but responded to my ad anyway even though I clearly stated the rate of pay I could offer.
Toward the end of my year I finally discovered the specific category for adults with disabilities looking for caregivers, but it is on the child care side of the website and seems very mismatched with applicants. The very few promising people I was talking to told me specifically that they would never have looked in any listing under the child care side of the website, so I think the whole setup is not really usable for people like us.
If you do decide to take the plunge and give them a try, only try it for a month and hit it hard, then give up if you don’t get promising leads.
-
Thanks for sharing. I’m holding off for now as I really doubt it’s a beneficial resource where I live.
-
-
Hi everyone, I just wanted to add my 2 cents to this thread before I forget. I want to preface this post with the fact that I have SMA III so my cares are probably quite a bit lighter than most people with SMA and that for the majority of my life, my mom has been my primary caregiver. My parents are now retirement age so it’s becoming increasingly apparent that I will need to find my own caregiver(s) here soon. I’m a bit of a story teller so bare with me.
For a brief period of my life, about four years, I made a huge life change and moved to central Florida (about 20 miles north of Orlando) from my hometown in South Dakota. I only knew one person in the area and it was merely a friend of a few years. I was working as a low level data analyst for a payroll software company making roughly $40,000 a year which is above the limit to receive pretty much any benefits including SSDI and Medicade so I was on my own for pay. I went through my budget and could manage to pay $1000 a month for morning (1.5 hours) and night (1 hour.) What a time it was in 2013 when that was a reasonable amount. I had no idea how to find caregivers other than to hire a service and I don’t need to tell anyone here how much home health companies charge.
After trying (and failing) to work with a few agencies and advocacy groups, I knew I was just going to have to figure it out. I don’t really recommend this but I ended up posting on Craig’s List for a caregiver, I think it cost like $10 to post the ad or something like that. Much like the stories in this thread, I had like 75 people reply to my ad. 80% of the people didn’t read the description as I specifically said I need someone with a CNA license or above and they had never been in the medical field but “wanted to help.” After wading through all of the applications, I narrowed it down to a handful and scheduled some interviews. This is before Zoom was a thing so everything was in person. I think I scheduled five interviews and three of them didn’t show up. One I knew wasn’t going to be a good fit and the other was an 18 year old girl who got her CNA license while still in high school. I really had no choice so I put my life in the hands of a kid and hoped for the best. She actually did very well but about a year later, she and her boyfriend started a family which obviously took priority and we parted ways.
I did this four more times over the next three years and found two absolutely wonderful caregivers. One was a 20 year old nursing student who commuted from her campus 25 miles away (morning and night.) And the other was a 25ish year old former CNA with actual work experience. That’s where my luck ended. Each of their lives diverted from mine and I unfortunately went back on the hunt. Craig’s List didn’t work so hot the next two times, both of the caregivers I hired had their CNA’s but one was very hard headed and I felt we just had to many personality conflicts and I had to let her go. The next put on a very convincing show during the interview and turned out to be very lazy, irresponsible and ended up stealing from me so I obviously let her go as well. That was the end of Craig’s List for me and the last caregiver I hired, I found on Care.com.
Care.com is a great resource if you’re in a metro area. I had hired a couple of short term caregivers in the mix of the above story and they had both worked very well. I hired my final permanent caregiver from here as well. She was very nice, positive attitude and good at the job but she was very unreliable. I had nights where she would fall asleep at home and not wake up and get to my house for hours and about 20 phone calls after she was suppose to show up. If I remember right, Care.com costs about $30 a month for the ability to send messages to different caregivers. I can’t remember if you need to subscribe to post a job, I feel like you don’t but if you want to actually look at the applications and talk to people, then you need to subscribe. At least twice, I was able to find promo codes for a free month so that’s always an option. You can always create an account for free and look through the caregivers in your area for free if you just want to see what’s out there. In the Orlando area, there were a ton but here in South Dakota, there are few and half of the caregivers haven’t logged in for months. As far as posting a job, I had the same issue as Robert where the only place to post is in the “senior” section of the site and you get a lot of people replying that have no experience in helping a disabled person, there are a lot of ‘caregivers’ who are more like companions. I just try to be as descriptive as possible and sort through the mess.
I have a girl that helps me now and then when my parents leave town, she was a friend of a friend of my aunts’. She has worked out pretty well, she has three kids so there have been times when she’s unfortunately flaked on me a few times but 90% of the time has worked great. I would say if you can find someone who is a connection of a family member, that is the absolute best thing you can do. If not, I would recommend Care.com and if that doesn’t work – in my experience, it’s a crapshoot. I would say that Craig’s List isn’t the worst thing if you have trusted people around to keep a 3rd party eye on the situation (and your belongings.)
I really wish I had better advice for everyone because it really is the single most important aspect of our lives. Anyways, this was my story, significantly longer than I had planned. (Sorry.) I wish everyone the best of luck and if I can be of any help, feel free to ask or DM me (if that’s a thing here.)
Ok, I’m done now. Bye!
Log in to reply.