The decision to hire a caregiver for a loved one can be difficult. Where do you look to make sure that you find a caregiver who you can trust to provide reliable care. What questions should you ask of a prospective home care provider? The National Private Duty Association suggest the following questions:
- How do you recruit your caregivers?
- Should a scheduling conflict occur, are there trained back-up caregivers?
- Are the caregivers bonded and insured?
- Are the caregivers employees of the provider and who handles the payroll and other taxes for the caregiver?
- What types of background checks and screenings do you do?
Companion Care New Mexico is a proud member of the National Private Duty Association. As a member of the NPDA, Companion care carefully screens and selects all of our caregivers prior to an assignment. Our Caregivers are employees, not independent contractors. Companion Care adheres to state and federal guidelines in employment practices, such as withholding required taxes, providing workers’ compensation, conducting background and reference checks. Our Care Managers develop an individual plan of care with the input of the client and the family. As a member of the NPDA, Companion Care has 24/7 on call availability, and our care managers monitor the caregiver services, and make regular visits to the client home. Our families never have to worry about payroll or employee related matters. At Companion Care you are giving your loved one the very best in holistic non-medical in home care. www.companioncarenm.com
Visits Companion Care on Facebook, and receive our FREE Celebrating Life’ Journey Workbook. www.facebook.com/companioncare
I am continuing my journey through the family photos, as I promised in my last post, and came across a real jewel. My Great GrandDad in a Vintage Advertisement where he worked. I never knew my Great GrandDad Buehler, he passed away a few months after I was born. However, I vividly remember the stories of his unwavering “work ethic”. Charles Gustave Buehler was born in Shafter, Texas in 1882, he spoke fluent Spanish and played a mean violin. He was employed by the Albert Mathias Company in El Paso, Texas as shipping manager his entire working life. I remember stories of him getting all the way home and thinking maybe a window at the warehouse was left open and getting back on the trolley to go all the way back down to work to make sure it was locked up tight. So now we know where my mother’s side of the family gets their OCD for locking doors and turning off lights. The most amazing thing about GrandDad was he worked for Albert Mathias for 40 years before he ever took a vacation. That is where my Great GrandMother Ba-ba enters this story. One day she got all dressed up and took the trolley down to the Albert Mathias’ warehouse and told the manger that it was time that GrandDad had a vacation, and they agreed. It is hard to imagine today someone working that many years without a vacation, but I guess it was normal back then. The cherry on top of this story is the picture below. My Great GrandDad on his vacation in the backyard, on the back of the photo in my Baba’s handwriting is “What a Vacation” July 1946. Vacation attire has also change a bit since then, as well.
- Claire http://www.companioncarenm.com
I am sitting here today with a daunting task before me. Years of neglect of the family photos and stories has driven me to do something about it, before it is too late. I currently have over a 100 years of family photo’s, scrapbooks, news clippings and the like, sitting in a pile in my guest room. It has been in that pile for the last few years, and every year around Christmas, I say to myself. I wished I had organized it, digitized it and documented it to pass on to the family. In the last fifteen years, we have lost first my grandfather, then my mother, and two years later her mother. Leaving me at age 52, being the oldest female left in my family. It is January 10, 2012 and I am putting it out to the world, that this will be the year. I have posted a picture of my Grandfather with this post, because of all the things I remember as a child and into my teenage years the most, was the stories he would tell during the Sunday night family dinners. Every family has a “storyteller”, and Paw-Paw was a storyteller extraordinaire. He was a traveling salesman, so it is fitting that I have a picture of him working on orders in his hotel room on the road. My regret is that I wish someone would have recorded all those stories. I remember bits and pieces, and I am hoping going through the pictures will bring some of it back to life. I am determined that from this point on these things will be preserved for those that come after me. My 83 year old father lives with me, and we are embarking on a little father/daughter project of documenting the stories from his side of the family. He is so excited about doing this for our family’s legacy. To make it easy we are going to record them in his own voice and then translate them. You will be able to follow our journey through this blog, and I hope to inspire you to do the same for your family. Companion Care has put together a workbook to help document a lifetime called “Celebrating Life’s Journey” it can be downloaded at our facebook page and printed out as many times as your want, just follow this link for your copy:
https://www.facebook.com/companioncare?sk=app_208412272531040
-Claire
Enriching Life’s Journey www.companioncarenm.com
Have you ever experienced your mother, father or a grandparent who suddenly became very disoriented and exhibited all the signs of dementia during a hospital stay due to an injury or illness? Well I have. It happened two years ago when my father developed a serious infection that went to the blood. During his stay in the hospital my 81 year old father, who was normally strong and able to function on his own, became so weak that he could not even turn over in bed. I remember it was the second night after the initial danger was over, that he brought me to tears. My dad was suddenly talking out of his mind. The nursing staff did not seem concerned, nor did they tell me it was probably temporary. I went home that night in tears, wondering what was I going to do. If only someone had shared with me that this was a common occurrence and was normally temporary. Two years later, my dad is just fine. He has regained his strength, and is mentally strong. He even has a new Saint Bernard puppy to keep him on his toes. Check out this blog post that I found today for more information this subject. -Claire
http://www.boomertoboomeronline.ca/2010/07/temporary-hospital-dementia/
Spousal caregivers often don’t get consistent help from other family members. They often feel they need to go it alone. Yet, there are resources out there to assist such caregivers. You can contact us at Companion Care or log on to “www.alz.org/newmexico” for more information. Companion Care has trained caregivers who can provide respite care for heavy-duty spousal caregivers.
Life transitions happen many times in a lifetime. If you are facing an uncertain future, Richard Leider’s workshop on finding passion and purpose in life may be for you. For more information go to www.can-nm.org
The trees we plant will grow
Under the dark blue sky.
Winter rain makes green fields
And time just keeps on going.
On this land a house is built.
A baby born with a joyful cry.
All is quiet as the sun goes down
And time just keeps on going. (Bob Crew)
A Sonnet for My Incomparable Mother
I often contemplate my childhood, Mom.
I am a mother now, and so I know
Hard work is mixed together with the fun;
You learned that when you raised me long ago.
I think of all the things you gave to me:
Sacrifice, devotion, love and tears,
Your heart, your mind, your energy and soul–
All these you spent on me throughout the years.
You loved me with a never-failing love
You gave me strength and sweet security,
And then you did the hardest thing of all:
You let me separate and set me free.
Every day, I try my best to be
A mother like the mom you were to me.
By Joanna Fuchs
http://www.poemsource.com/mother-poems.html
We at Companion Care celebrate one of our deepest connections to our planet: food. A balanced diet is something that we ask our care partners to focus on when they are in the kitchen and shopping with their clients. And just as a balanced diet is important for our health, a sustainable diet is key to the long-term health of the lands and waters that nourish us.
Happy Earth Day!
The decision to hire a caregiver for a loved one can be difficult. Where do you look to make sure that you find a caregiver who you can trust to provide reliable care. What questions should you ask of a prospective home care provider? The National Private Duty Association suggest the following questions:
