Why is it so hard to find caregivers who speak and understand English?

I haven't had any problems with this. Yes, many caregivers are immigrants. But I find some of them speak better English than many Americans.

Not sure why they would send a person who can't speak English well to a private home where they have to be able to communicate. I can see a facility because there maybe someone there that can translate. I live in NJ where there are a lot of Spanish speaking people.

You have a right to ask for someone who can understand and communicate. I have dealt with this on the phone.

derochka, when my Dad needed professional caregivers I went with a nationwide agency and the vast majority of the caregivers were 2nd or 3rd or 4th generation here in the States. Dad did have night caregivers where English was their second language, but Dad had no problem understanding when they spoke, and vise versa. Dad had worked decades for a company that was diverse thus was use to different accents.

My Mom had problems understanding the Queen's English, southern and Boston accents.... [sigh].

It's good that the agency is sending different caregivers to try out. My Dad picked two to be his regular scheduled caregivers and they were with him over a year. The other shifts weren't that important, Dad did prefer an more mature caregiver compared to someone right out of school as there was much more in common to talk about. What 18-25 year old would know who Frank Sinatra was?

Back to money again, they are not paid much. We had one for my mother thru an agency, it was $12.50 an hour, I wondered how much the caretaker got as the agency has to make money too, did not compute to me! Possibly minimum wage?