As from my experience, you talked openly to care giver and study him/her. Is she/he is a night person or day person? If your parents used to wake up often at night to go toilet/bath room, will he/she be ok to get up often and accompany? Is he/she patient enough to serve your parents when elderly person keep request repeatly? Will he/she really enjoy much time with elderly? I really encounter one care giver who is not interesting elderly and most of the time she watching TV by sitting beside my parents.
You might consider just having a general conversation as an opener as people are more candid when they're not being interviewed. Serve coffee, tea, cider to establish a relaxed atmosphere.
Perhaps tell the candidates about your parents, what they enjoy and don't enjoy, etc.. And try to get the candidates to do the same so you have an idea how they'll interact with your parents.
I'd be looking for compassion, potential interaction with both your parents and yor (it is a team, after all), how emergencies are handled and what could constitute an emergency. Although I'm sure agencies have protocols, what might be an emergency to a daughter or son might not be an emergency to a hired caregiver.
Sometime I've seen in occasional posts here on this forum are problems people have had with caregivers....whether it's lack of responsibility, becoming too friendly with the family to the exclusion of the caregivers...extreme, perhaps, but it could be an issue.
Something occurred once with a therapist through a home care agency which surprised me. The woman really was fond of my father, and for that I was appreciative. But she began giving homeopathic medical advice which unsettled me. I support this alternative personally, but not some of her advice made me uncomfortable as I couldn't verify its legitimacy when I researched it.
In another situation, it wasn't a hired caregiver, but there was an incident in which I should have been notified of an incident but I wasn't until it was discovered during a trip to the ER. By that time, the complications were more serious. My parent should also have notified me but felt it wasn't serious.
A candidate can have a great resume but it takes something special to be able to come in someone else's house and take care of their parents.
If you're going through an agency I'm not sure I understand why you have to interview caregivers. Won't the agency send caregivers to you? If the caregivers work for an agency they will have already had background checks and been interviewed prior to being hired. Hopefully the agency will send you caregivers who work well with your routine and whom you like.
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Perhaps tell the candidates about your parents, what they enjoy and don't enjoy, etc.. And try to get the candidates to do the same so you have an idea how they'll interact with your parents.
I'd be looking for compassion, potential interaction with both your parents and yor (it is a team, after all), how emergencies are handled and what could constitute an emergency. Although I'm sure agencies have protocols, what might be an emergency to a daughter or son might not be an emergency to a hired caregiver.
Sometime I've seen in occasional posts here on this forum are problems people have had with caregivers....whether it's lack of responsibility, becoming too friendly with the family to the exclusion of the caregivers...extreme, perhaps, but it could be an issue.
Something occurred once with a therapist through a home care agency which surprised me. The woman really was fond of my father, and for that I was appreciative. But she began giving homeopathic medical advice which unsettled me. I support this alternative personally, but not some of her advice made me uncomfortable as I couldn't verify its legitimacy when I researched it.
In another situation, it wasn't a hired caregiver, but there was an incident in which I should have been notified of an incident but I wasn't until it was discovered during a trip to the ER. By that time, the complications were more serious. My parent should also have notified me but felt it wasn't serious.
A candidate can have a great resume but it takes something special to be able to come in someone else's house and take care of their parents.
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