About who needs care: My dad (80) has MS and needs help getting into and out of his bed and into and out of the bathroom. My mother (79) has been taking care of him and helping with his mobility, but it's extremely physically taxing for a 79 year-old woman (duh), and she just broke her hip! She had been helping him in this way for years and years, but her days of helping him in this way are done. We need someone to come to the house in the mornings and help my mom out with household stuff (a family friend who works nearby usually comes to get dad out of bed in the mornings), and then to return around his bedtime (which is negotiable) and help him do his nighttime routine. The exact hours, pay and tasks are negotiable between the caregiver and them, but the main issue is helping dad into and out of bed. They're lovely people; pillars in our community, but unfortunately I live in Los Angeles and can't be there to help them. About the care needs: What's interesting about this particular set of job requirements is that the ideal candidate doesn't even really need to be a medical expert.....jeez, the job is almost closer to "furniture mover/home helper" than it is home healthcare aide!! While I'm NOT saying that the ideal candidate would be a man necessarily, I AM saying that there is a little bit of lifting involved. Please consider this in advance. We've had a couple of younger female caregivers come to the house and say that they weren't comfortable with that level of exertion (which is interesting, because as I mentioned, my 79 year-old mother has been doing it for years). Dad uses a Pivot device to get out of bed, wherein the caregiver would stand on the side of the bed holding the device steady; dad then grabs onto it and lifts himself up. The caregiver then pivots it (hence the name) and turns him towards his power chair and sort of "deposits" him in his chair at that point. For comparison: I'm a healthy 43 year-old man, and I do this job when I'm home; it's not "easy" at first, but really it's just about getting the hang of the Pivot device. The last potential employees showed up apparently looked at it and tried it for five minutes and gave up. If they'd have spent 15 minutes, they'd have gotten it. I just want to be VERY clear about this because I will be heartbroken if another caregiver shows up after having being given this very specific information and then decides, "Oh, wow, no no, this isn't the kind of work we do." So please give that some thought. I know that I'm obviously biased, but for the right person in their community, it's a GREAT job opportunity. Their home is clean, cozy and safe. You could put a couple hours with them in the morning, then go to another job, then come back at night. They are willing to pay very competitive wages for that region of the country. A lot of these services have a minimum in terms of their number of hours (usually 2), so the idea would be: get dad out of bed (or back in bed, depending on whether it's morning or night....still working on the specifics of that) and then in the interim, do some light housework for my mom so she can recover peacefully! You would be absolutely saving their lives. Please reach out if you are this person! Services needed include: meal preparation, errands / shopping, light housekeeping, and mobility assistance.
Mobility Assistance
Light Housekeeping
Meal Preparation
Errands / Shopping