Parents are an integral part of the family. They form the foundation of the relationships between the members. Their interferences can do miracles in the tough times. Their advice carries solutions for problems based on their real-life experiences. These are apart from their hard work to raise us and build our family environment. It will be the hardest revelation for them to understand that they have grown old enough to be a burden for their children and family members.

It will be the hardest decision for the children to take when they prefer to work keeping their old dependent parents at home, helpless. This situation is faced by most of the families around the globe at some point of time in their lifetime. And the solutions are not so easy to be granted. Most of the questions raised at this juncture are similar, still hard to answer. Some of the common concerns of the family members are the subset of the following:

1. Budget: Whether it will be affordable for the family? To maintain a dedicated fulltime caregiver, it affects the total family budget.
2. Utility and skill set: This will be the most difficult part while choosing the caregiver. Situations demand multiple utilities for the caregiver. The caregiver may get assigned with different types of tasks like dietary food plans which may need food preparations, lifesaving or first-aid skills for critically ill patients like heart patients, routine tasks like cleaning, dressing of patients, nursing tasks like dressing wounds and medications etc. Finding a caregiver with all the required skill set inside the budget will be the greatest challenge for the family. Take time, test the caregiver and choose the most suitable one.
3. Attitude: Attitude of the caregiver is equally important as the skill set for the elderly care. The caregiver also needs to ensure maximum care and patience.
4. Background verification: Always be safe and go for a background check on the caregiver. Even though it is provided by the agency, go through their profile in detail, find previous clients and ask for endorsement on the personal details, skill sets, experiences and any relevant detail that you may find applicable. Rule out all the chances of security, care and quality breaches that may be of great concern.
5. Timings and schedule: Availability of the caregiver in the required timings that includes the extendibility according to the convenience of the family members. If the family members have jobs that are not following strict timings and need prolonged office hours, and if they need the caregiver to wait until they can reach home, it can cause frequent confusions. The family may have to allocate budget to pay extra time allowances or should keep a standby caregiver for such occasions.
6. Alternate caregiver: We must anticipate unforeseen circumstances and unavoidable leaves of the caregiver. In the case of specially skilled caregivers, there needs to keep a panel of them who we may call to fill in such situations.
7. Quality Assurance: It is always better to get regular or even daily feedback of the patient about the caregiver. If the patient is not in a stage to provide valid feedback, there must be some inspection mechanism to track the entire care process. Clients can rely on the agency for this. So make sure such services are included in the services offered by the agency when you choose them. Also, make sure there will be proper communication channel available with the agency and caregiver.

The whole reason to have a caregiver for a dependent patient is to provide care for the patient, ensure support for the family and maintain the lifestyle and income of the family members without compromising the quality in care and peace of mind. So apart from the common factors mentioned above, family members should consider all their special and relevant factors before appointing a caregiver, that help to produce the expected results in achieving that whole reason.