Most seniors want to remain in their home for as long as they can.   As seniors’ age and their memories falter, being able to live in familiar surroundings becomes more and more comforting.

A recent California Supreme Court ruling is now making live-in home care unaffordable for all but the wealthiest among us.  At Caring Hands Caregivers, we pay and treat our caregivers well, as they are at the core of our care, and our business.  However, the California Supreme Court nullified the federal sleep time deduction.  With that ruling, we are now required to pay our live-in home care workers overtime rate when they are sleeping. 

This ruling in Mendiola vs. CPS Security Solutions has significantly increased families’ costs, rendering home care unaffordable for many.   When such a substantial payroll burden is being supported entirely by families’ dwindling savings, they often have no choice but to discontinue live-in care.   The effects of that kind of change can be traumatic for the entire family, but especially for our senior clients.  And if families can't hire us to provide care for their loved ones, our caregivers will be underemployed or even unemployed. 

You can help.

We urge you to contact your legislator, and urge them to work tirelessly to appeal this ruling.  The burden of such a cost is at the expense of seniors and their families trying to do the right thing.

Thank you for taking action with us.  

While I now call the San Francisco Bay Area home, my original home was in the Midwest.  And as they say, you can take a boy from the Midwest, but you can't take the Midwest out of the boy.  My upbringing has greatly influenced my values, and the way that we approach managing our caregiver agency.

When I purchased Caring Hands Caregivers six years ago, I had the goal of providing the highest quality of care possible.  To do so, you need to make sure that every client is treated like we would treat our family.  And while issues inevitably come up, our guiding principles ensure that we react quickly to meet the changing needs of our clients.

With that in mind, we use the following set of values as guiding principles for our business, each and every day:

• Integrity-- we are 100% committed to doing the right thing for our clients, our caregivers, and our clients' families.  This acts as a guiding principle in our honest and open business practices, in how we work with our caregivers, and how we resolve everyday issues.
  
• Personal Care--as a small, local, family-owned and -operated business, we maintain a limited number of clients to allow for care that is best suited to each client's needs.
  
• Transparency--clear communication and constant access to our team means that you can know exactly how your loved one is being cared for.
• Agility--as our clients age, their situations can change very rapidly.  When issues arise, we're able to respond quickly to ensure that our quality care is uninterrupted.
• Partnership--extraordinary care requires cooperation and communication between our clients, their families, our caregivers, and us.  We facilitate that communication, through consistent contact and access to online tools.
• Efficiency--We hire career caregivers, many with 5 years or more of experience, so they get up to speed quickly.  And our management team brings many years of agency and operational business experience to keep things running smoothly and efficiently.

If someone you love is in need of a caregiver in the Bay Area, feel free to call us at 408.775.7626 to schedule a care options review.  That way, you can determine if Caring Hands Caregivers is the right partner to care for your loved one.

As Linda Bernstein mentioned in her article, 8 Things Not to Say to Your Aging Parents, dealing with aging parents as their memory fades can prove frustrating.  Despite our best efforts, we sometimes lose patience while listening to the same stories over and over, trying to track when conversations 'go rogue', and teaching the same skills repeatedly.  

Here are a few tips that we've learned, while caring for older adults, for how to handle these situations in a loving and compassionate way. 

When hearing the same story for the umpteenth time
Say "I remember you saying that before, which lead to..."  This lets them know that you've listened to them, and allows them to leap forward and add additional details or a relevant connection to the current conversation.

When teaching a technology skill
Instead of just showing the skill once, create a document with screen shots that can be referred back to when your parent attempts the task on their own.

When reminding about a name or elusive word
Ask them for a description instead of the exact word or name.  Often, they can come up with "Edith's son", but not the name.  Or, they can come up with the usage of a spatula, for example, but not the label.

I hope that these suggestions help you to turn your best intentions into reality when dealing with your aging parents.

Today, we applaud Governor Brown for vetoing the bill dubbed, misleadingly, the "Domestic Workers Bill of Rights" (see our blog from 8/29, "Why we oppose AB889").  

In his decision, Governor Brown aptly asks, "What will be the economic and human impact on the disabled or elderly person and their family of requiring overtime, rest and meal period for attendants who provide 24 hour care?"  He went on to ask, "What would be the additional costs and what is the financial capacity of those taking care of loved ones in the last years of life."  

The Governor poses some appropriate questions that require further study before enacting a mandate.  Some other questions to answer:
*  How would domestic workers be protected if you cannot find them?  The bill would've taken the live-in care industry underground, making workers more vulnerable.
*  How would families be protected if a caregiver were injured on the job?  When caregivers are hired directly by families, the family does not typically pay for worker's compensation insurance.  That provides little recourse for the caregiver to get back lost wages, and makes the family vulnerable to litigation.

At Caring Hands Caregivers, our caregivers are our heart and soul.  We make sure that they are paid fairly, are insured, and are protected from abuse.  Our obligation to our clients AND to our caregivers is to provide great care.

I had the honor of co-presenting at the Ninth Annual Avenidas Caregiving Conference last weekend, along with Sue Alvey (Avenidas Rose Kleiner Center) and Cathy Lynch (Pathways).  Our session, "Day Breaks", focused on how Home Care, Home Health, and Day Health can help family caregivers avoid burnout by providing much needed breaks during the day. 

During our presentation, we reviewed our resource table (download here), illustrating the defining the services, qualification criteria, and payment options for Home Care, Home Health, and Day Health.  We illustrated how the different services can be used in tandem using the following sample case study (written by Sue Alvey):

"Mrs. J is 93-years-old, and lives in her own home.  Her daughter lives with her and works part-time.  Mrs. J has fallen twice at home.  After each fall, she has become a little more confused and needs more help getting around.

Mrs. J's doctor recommended working with a HOME HEALTH agency to provide Physical and Occupational Therapy. The therapies will help strengthen her muscles and improve her balance.  However, the daughter realized that she cannot leave her mother at home alone while she works. She’s also having trouble navigating the logistics of helping her mother bathe. 

A friend recommended that she call a HOME CARE agency to help with personal care.  The caregiver helps the daughter to keep an eye on Mrs. J. and keeps her safe at home.  The caregiver was able to watch her sessions with the physical therapist and now helps follow through on her exercises. The work on puzzles and go out for ice cream as a special treat.

The social worker at the Home Health agency suggested that the daughter consider a Senior DAY HEALTH Program for her mother.  There she could benefit from social interactions with her peers and mentally stimulating activities.  Nurses and physical therapists there would continue to monitor her health.  Physical and occupational therapists could take over after the Home Health Agency therapists have finished up.  She could benefit from both HOME CARE and Senior DAY HEALTH by alternating days when these services are provided."

At Caring Hands Caregivers, we are always happy to recommend the appropriate service for the appropriate set of needs, whether or not you hire a Caring Hands caregiver.  Call us at 650.943.2313 to find out how to best combine these services to fit your particular needs.

When you first glance at AB889  it seems like something you would want to support.  Positioned as a 'domestic workers bill of rights', it promises to provide basic workplace rights to in-home workers.  But you cannot protect workers who are hired directly by individuals, frequently underpaid, and often paid under the table.  AB889 will take the in home care industry underground, rendering domestic workers invisible, thereby more vulnerable to abuse.

If you look a little deeper, you see that AB889 makes two classes of already vulnerable citizens--seniors and domestic workers--more vulnerable to physical, financial, and emotional abuse.  The most recent changes to the legislation exempts everyone except the home care agencies.  Yet it is the home care agencies that keep seniors and caregivers the safest and most secure.  In fact, we hire caregivers out of abusive or potentially abusive situations.

AB889 is Bad for Seniors
Dedicated home care agencies protect seniors by pre-screening candidates, conducting background checks and medical screening, and taking on the employer liability.  And with day-to-day management, seniors are given better care, and have more flexibility in making sure that the caregiver that they are working with is the best person to care for them.

AB889 would force us to provide multiple caregivers per live-in client, making staying at home too cost prohibitive.  Far fewer seniors will be able to remain in their own home as they require care.  Also, imagine an older person living with Alzheimers having to have multiple shift changes every day.  That would make an already confusing situation more overwhelming.  

AB889 is Bad for Domestic Workers
Home care agencies pay a fair, dependable wage, cover workers compensation, provide training, and create a safe working environment for domestic workers.  If a caregiver is not being treated well, it is the home care agency that takes care of them.  If this bill passes, the home care industry will go underground, and domestic workers will provide care directly with no protection, no oversight, no one checking in to see how they are fairing.  Instead of preventing abuse, this creates a situation that is ripe for abuse.  

Please join us in opposing AB889.  Let your State Senators know that you want to keep seniors and domestic workers safe, secure, and well cared for.

We're honored to be chosen as a speaker for the upcoming Avenidas Caregiving Conference, on a panel with Cathy Lynch from Pathways and Sue Alvey from Avenidas Rose Kleiner Center.  The conference is happening one month from today, in Mountain View, California.  

We were delighted to participate with Avenidas and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation in the 1st annual Successful Aging Celebration.  True to the title of the event, we met a lot of seniors who are aging successfully, and had a chance to connect with potential partners that can enhance the service we provide to seniors even more.
  
The seniors we talked to were especially interested in a new service that we’re launching for Aging in Place called In Home Assisted Living.  We’ve taken the Assisted Living concept, and are helping seniors stay at home longer by providing just the help they need in as short as 30-minute increments.   If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and would like to inquire about this service, just send me an email at scott@chcgivers.com or call us at 650.943.2313.  We’ll come to your house, assess your needs, and figure out the right match for you.