Setting up homecare services for elderly, particularly if it is being done as the first experience, could have its own challenges for them as well as for the family members. If you have your frustrations and fears in looking for a homecare agency and setting up caregiving services for your beloved parents; feel a little better, because you are not alone on this!

After years of providing all levels of care for several hundred clients across 6 counties in Southern California, Team Redan could point out to the following issues as top challenges for the families when seeking homecare services:

1. Elderly Refusal & Resistance to Care

As you age, you become more creature of your habits. Any tiniest in elderly’s lifestyle could be a big deal for them, let alone if that change be as major as a new individual being around them, and help them with their personal routines. Especially for first timers, care services should start very modestly, very minimal, and only for essential activities. Once a rapport is built between the elderly and the caregiver, gradual increase in services could be feasible according the care needs.

2. Dignity and Independence Compromise for Elderly

Dignity and self respect of elderly is always at stake when they feel they are loosing their self-sufficiency, and have to rely on others for their needs. It is very common and intuitive. Families should very much be respectful of elderly’s sense of independence when proposing them the idea of caregiving services. Managers and staff at Redan is well experienced in interacting with elderly in such a way that their dignity remains untouched, and their respect remains honored.

3. Privacy Exposure for Elderly and Family

Caregiving at home could be very intimate, often times involves the most personal activities of one’s day-to-day life. It is very natural for elderly to feel their privacy is at stake. The same privacy boundaries could also be a concern for the family members of the elderly. Privacy exposure is somehow inevitable when you have a caregiver spending hours with the family in the same household. At Redan, we instruct the staff and caregivers that keeping families private matters private is of utmost important aspect of this job. They would not ask questions, they would not want to know any personal information that is not relevant to the best doing of their job, and they would not narrate back any information they might happen to hear inevitably.

4. Adapting to a New Norm

Having a caregiver at home is almost like having a new (extended) family member. and it would always bring new norms to the family, whether from personal interactions, to conversations, to behavior, to socializing, to eating, to finance, to running errands outside, and almost anything else a new family member would bring along. The new norm might last shorter or longer, but it would definitely affect the elderly and everybody else around as long as it lasts, and therefore, it needs a good adaptation and understanding by everyone in the family, and not just the care recipient.

5. Language Barrier

Elderly is often that not have some illness going on, they have pain, they are hard of hearing, they have difficulty speaking, among other challenges that could make their life not as pleasant. They would find annoying if they would not have the most smooth and easy communication with the caregiver. It is almost a deal breaker for an elderly to have a specific caregiver, if they have to repeat anything for the caregiver twice. Therefore, Team Redan always make sure that language barrier is not an issue, when placing staff with the clients. Redan has caregivers who speak English, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Turkish, Persian, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog, among others, even sign language. Occasionally, when we have a feedback on a caregiver with whom the care recipient cannot keep the most well-rounded communication, we would take immediate action to replace the caregiver until the communication issue is resolved.

6. Trust Issues

The concerns regarding having a new individual at home when it comes to trust is always present, especially for first timers, and it should remain a rightful concern when looking for caregivers. It is one of the reasons that families would need to hire caregiving services through agencies, rather than random advertisement by individuals. All of Redan’s staff are background checked as part of their employment process, and they have also been referenced checked for past employment history, making sure that they are trustful individuals. Furthermore, Redan staff are bonded, so any hypothetical incident involving loss of items is covered through the bond (gladly, that bond has never had to be used).

7. Complicated Multi-factor Decision Making

Hiring caregiving service often involves several factors and comes usually as a family collective decision. Factors involved in putting homecare services in place could widely vary from one family to the other, but often than not, it involves financial issue, family interactions, logistics around coordination, privacy issues, family disagreements, distribution of duties among family members and staff, privacy concerns, among others. So never be intimated to approach Team Redan inquiring about setting up homecare services, only because you are not to sure whether things work out or whether you could get the whole family onboard with the services in place. Team Redan would have solutions for any scenarios the family would be going through, no matter what. Just call us and tell us more about what is the situation on hand, and we will let you know how to move forward.

8. Family Conflicts & Arguments

In occasional situation, families could have string disagreements over aspects of care services being in place. As much as Team Redan could propose the best solution for any scenario, but at the end of the day, a family’s personal business is family’s personal business, and Team Redan would be respectful and considerate of the family boundaries not being violated. In situations where care needs for elderly is inevitable and it would deal with well-being of an elder human, Team Redan feels obligated to move forward with proving care services, and it would have no option but to go with a family member who is a PoA or has the authority to make decision for the family.

9. Finding a Reliable, Available and Professional Service Provider

Finding a reliable and available homecare service provider, with professional staff and management, is always a challenge. Team Redan takes pride in their services all across southern California, that has been nothing short of outstanding as measured by our phenomenal client reviews. Whether you need service for a couple of hours per week, or you need services 24/7, Team Redan values you and your beloved one’s well-being just as important. We go above and beyond to ensure that we are available to you via phone/text/email on 7 days a week, 24 hours a day; we make sure that we would be as flexible and accommodating to your needs and last minute emergency calls, and we would replace caregivers until a 100% match is present between the caregiver and the family. We hope that you could feel that you can fully rely on us during the difficult times of caring for a terminal patient or an incapacitated individual at home.

10. Financial Burden

Except few scenarios such as free IHSS services by the government, or services that are covered under Long-Term Care insurance, majority of homecare services are private paid. Team Redan fully understands and sympathies that the cost of hiring homecare services thorough licensed agencies like us could be mounting high. And we wish that we could have some magic solutions to be able to offer those services at a substantially reduced cost to whoever in need of the services. But unfortunately, labor in the State of California is expensive, added to that would be surcharges for healthcare industry; and there is only so much that Team Redan management can do on the cost. What we can do though is to make sure we minimize the profit margin, and have the cost at the minimum feasible to the clients, while keeping staff happy, provide supplies and training, and have all the necessary coverage in place. Keep in mind that to receive homecare services from Redan, you don’t have to always pay abundantly. The first step in recruiting Redan services is the assessment of the care recipient and needs, and you will be given the advice on how to set up the services most effectively to both meets the needs of the care recipient, while keeping the cost minimum. Just call us and let that initial conversation takes place.

Recruiting caregiving service often involves several factors such as financial issues, family interactions, logistics around coordination, privacy issues, family disagreements, distribution of duties among family members and staff, privacy concerns, adaptation to new norms, among others. Call us and let us tell you that you are not alone on this, and we have a solution for you, no matter of the challenges you are facing.