Just curious. This is what this local facebook person is looking for someone to do.
Is this a fair deal?
God no.
Twelve hours a day minimum(what about weekends?) for constant care should pay for much more than a room to live in and enough food to live on.
‘‘God no’’ just about sums it up. I’m assuming this would be 7 days a week? This person would never have any free time.
IMO volunteering for something like this would represent a major sacrifice, even for a family member who was in desperate circumstances. The hypothetical telecommuter really can not both do whatever their job is on top of what amounts to a full time in home care job.
Not a fair deal for the caregiver OR dear old auntie. Horrible idea.
Way too low.
What would you pay for a room (and utilities) and food every month in your area?
Let’s be generous and say $1000. Even if you assume 5 days a week X 12 hours continuous care a day X 4 weeks a month = 240 hours a month. That’s around $4/hour.
What happens at night when you’re (generic you) “off the clock” and she wanders or falls etc. Do you just look the other way? Is someone else living there who is at work all day but will be home in the evenings and at night?
Does this include personal care (like bathing, dressing, toileting)? Meal prep? Grocery shopping? Who covers liability insurance if she gets hurt under your care?
Weekends?
The ad implies the person could be working from home- which job takes precedence at the moment- if you’re on a conference call or have a big deadline?
Yikes.
This is absolutely not a fair deal. It’s a horrible, ghastly deal.
I was thinking more along the lines of “Dear God, no!”
24/7/365 care of a moody dementia patient with limited funds? Sign me up! It sounds like non-stop fun!
Sadly, this is becoming more and more of an issue for lots of families, and I can only imagine the person who posted this ad was at least well-meaning and trying to find some other option.
A good option? No.
No matter how sweet and kind Auntie might have been, or perhaps still is, living and caring for someone with dementia/Alzheimers is a very, very stressful environment. You cannot simply sit in the den and work on your websites, etc. and just glance in to check on Auntie every few hours.
Any number of things can and will go wrong - aggressive actions, wandering off, turning on an oven and forgetting the fact, falling down stairs…so much can go wrong so quickly - and you have to be constantly vigilant. This is hard enough for a family member, let alone a stranger who is tossed into this environment with little or no training/preparation for what is in store.
So yeah - crappy idea, but I can see a well-meaning relative trying to find any and all alternatives in a desperate attempt to keep things as normal as possible.
Maybe the nephew or niece who is looking for someone to do this should try it for a month and see how fair they think it is.
The only person who might think was a good idea would have to be someone who was desperate, unemployed and homeless. I can’t say as I think that giving a desperate homeless person full responsibility over a very vulnerable person in that vulnerable person’s own home is a good idea. Nor can I fathom how anyone could possibly think this was a good idea, for either party.
Another vote for “Dear God, NO!” Caring for a dementia patient isn’t a 12 hour a day job, it’s 24/7. Room and board is simply not ample compensation.
Being a caregiver is fundamentally a profession (albeit a very low paying profession - $20 per hour is what the agency gets paid, the actual caregiver just gets a portion of that). Expecting a stranger looking for free rent to be an effective caregiver is, hmmm…how about we start with “not the best option” for the facebooker.
And as for any potential applicant, another vote for, “Not only no, but HELL no!”
All that said, it does kinda depend on the level of dementia, and the local environment, etc. I say that because when I was young, an older aunt of mine made a bit of a career out of these kind of arrangements. She was older herself, but very capable. She would move in with an older lady who needed help - as a companion-helper - until the older lady passed on. My aunt did this for a number of years. There were stories going around that she only got room and board during her stay, but frequently was remembered in the will. So, that was the deal.
Definitely not. Where I am (which has very high rent- $700-$1000 a room), the going exchange for childcare is a room in exchange for 4 hours of childcare during weekdays.
If you have to ask the question, you’ve obviously never spent time with a dementia patient. Especially one who is getting “moody.” :eek:
My grandma has what I guess is classed as “moderate” Alzheimer’s–she can keep herself dressed, fed, and bathed, and the apartment clean, but her memory issues have reached the point that she’ll call me and talk about how she hasn’t talked to me in weeks, even though we talked yesterday, and the day before that. I love my grandma dearly, but I wouldn’t live with her on a bet. For one thing, being around her means having the same ten-minute conversation approximately every 12 minutes, and that’s enough to drive a person batty even in small, infrequent doses. Twelve hours a day, every day? ::shudder::
But the big thing is the personality changes and the delusions. Grandma has always been the sweetest, kindest, funniest, most loving and joyful person I’ve ever known…but that person comes out less and less and less, replaced with a bitter, suspicious, paranoid woman who swears to all the powers that people have been and still are stealing from her, that the other old women in the assisted living facility pick on her because she wears glasses, and that my aunt hired a goon squad to drug, kidnap, and beat her. Listening to her talk about these delusions is hard enough, I can’t begin to imagine being the target of one.
Is being “put in a home” that bad? I mean, I understand that old folks have pride and want to live in their own homes and whatnot but not being able to be alone in your own home sounds like no fun. And being stuck with a non-medically-qualified stranger who’s making $4 an hour to hang out with you 12 hours a day doesn’t sound that peachy either.
I mean yeah there are “old folks home” horror stories but there are also home healthcare horror stories and child daycare horror stories. When I think of my relatives and the prospect of them either killing themselves by living at home, going broke having home health care and then ending up in a facility, or going to a non-free facility they can afford…it just seems to make sense to me that a facility is the safest way to go.
I’m sure I’m just seeing this through rose-colored glasses because my grandpa ended up in a facility this year, before he died, and it was a very nice place that I was soooo very happy to have them take care of him. But it wasn’t cheap, I’m sure. But anything was better than him falling all over his house while grandma slowly went nuts from having to care for him. I mean, loads better.
Not even close. Just how am I supposed to buy clothes and all the other luxuries I’ve come to depend on?
Impossible. An 84 hour work week, and no income left over after paying rent and groceries?
How can it possibly be other than 24/7 if “room and board” are the only pay? Especially for a telecommuter! What do you do the other 12 hours a day - ignore her?
I sympathize with the expense of home care, but anybody desperate enough to take this job is not someone I want looking after a relative who can’t care for herself.
Regards,
Shodan
I’m a caregiver with the sweetest, kindest, nicest little old fella in the world as a client. He’s pretty with it and never, ever moody. In short, he is a dream client for a caregiver. Even for HIM, this would be a big no. Auntie needs that $20/hr caregiver, or she needs to be in a facility if her family can’t care for her. Someone with dementia needs careful supervision and things can change at the drop of a hat.