Schedules for Home Care Aides. Does anyone have a home care aide who will work 4 hours?

We have a home health aid. 8-12 Monday-Friday. She goes to another job starting at 3. Works for us. My mom has dialysis 3 times a week at 2. It was hard to get someone to work those hrs.

My mom has two part time aides we found through a local church. They were both friends of a friend so I knew something about them.

Morning aide works 9-1 (breakfast, lunch and reminds about morning meds) and then assists mom in getting ready for her nap.

Evening aide works 5-9 and reminds about meds and gets mom dinner and ready for bed.

These hours have worked well.
Mom is 85, has moderate dementia, poor mobility but is able to transfer alone to bed, chair and toilet.
She lives in a senior
community in her independent living apartment.

I have “Armada Care”from Westlake, Ohio come care for my 99 yr old Mom 4 days a week, 3 hrs a day. We scheduled
10am-1:00pm on Mon, Tues, Thurs and Friday. But we are flexible should the caregiver need a work day off she then works on Wednesday to make up her hours. Works out great.

We hired privately for my dad. His amazing and wonderful helper started with four hours a day. There were some that turned down that number of hours but the right one was happy to do it

I hired an agency for my mom for four hours a day, and I had to commit to paying for two weeks' worth of that schedule. Perhaps try that with agencies you contact.

My husband has advanced dementia. I have a person from an agency come three days a week for four hours at a time (1:00 to 5:00). The agency charges $24.00 an hour. She does cognitive therapy with my husband, games, watches TV, no household chores (my choice). It gives me a little free time and I do enjoy my time off. I know my husband is safe and taken care of while I'm gone.

If you factor in that travel between jobs is lost time with no money earned it makes sense that agencies prefer to schedule larger blocks of time. We worked out a deal with Visiting Angels to do a 2 hour morning shift and a 2 hour afternoon shift for dad.

We've gone through the same problem. Was finally told their isn't one agency in the entire county (or surrounding counties) that will send someone for an 4 hour shift - unless we sign a contract for two shifts a week for almost $1,000 a month. And that's about how much income we have coming in to live on ... so, that's a no.

I was told by a very nice lady who owns an agency - there's so many people wanting aides/CNA's etc that they can "write their own ticket" about the hours they choose to work and how far they wish to drive.

There is a difference however - hands on care vs homemaker care. The Homemakers are easier to get (although when I called to schedule a few times, never had one actually show up - so I gave up.)

But, if you want care that will actually "touch" a patient/client then it's going to be difficult and expensive. The Homemakers won't help with bathing, or diaper changes though.

There's a labor shortage right now, and a large amount of aids are still not vaccinated (per a recent survey provided by my own MIL's well-run facility, there's still only 56% at her residence). Because of the labor shortage they are forced to decide to accept unvaccinated aids vs. not enough aids.

Labor shortage also means workers can hold out for more hours and a simpler schedule (which makes managing their own family life less stressful). Trying to cobble together enough hours for a single employee weekly to make a living from the differing needs of multiple clients becomes significantly more challenging and time-consuming for the care agency.

You will probably need to privately hire.

If you were in Iowa I would help you

As far as setting hours, it can be iffy. But your examples are spot on. Finding a worker willing to come late nights is even worse but I understand because you are entering someone else home hoping to feel safe.

A year or so ago, companies were a bit more willing to have someone come on for part-time. But now, they are singing that song to me as well saying that it is the workers wanting full time. But, my speculation is that it's the companies. On the Medicaid waiver program, if you don't do adult daycare you can have up to 60 hours a month for in-home respite. Well, the company I am with now keeps saying not enough for the worker.

I requested information from a private source for private pay and was quoted for the minimum hours of 4 a week for around $500 a month. So after saying, that's probably all we can do for now, I've not heard another peep.