What Is Your Role When Caregivers are Caring for Your Senior Concierge Clients?

If you're lucky your senior concierge clients keep you around a long time.  Normally, you start to work with your clients when they're needing a little extra help and later in time they start to need a lot of extra help. Your role will need to switch at that time. You will work more in the background and other professionals will come into the foreground.  

Often, caregivers, home care workers, attendants, certified nursing assistants are the people who take on this work.  They assist with the daily living activities i.e. (feeding, bathing, transferring, toileting, grooming, maintaining continence, dressing)  

There is still so much work to be done for the Senior Concierge when the caregiver arrives. All of the normal duties you had with your client would still be relevant. You can attend doctor's appointments to take notes (bring the caregiver with you for help with your client), you can help to make sure bills are being paid and organize the mail, pick up the medications at the pharmacy, order supplies, gather tax paperwork for your clients, and keep in contact with family members to share how things are going at home.

When caregivers come they have a list of required tasks the agency provides.  What's helpful is if you can assist your client in helping to orient the caregiver around the home to show them where everything they need will be and show them how to operate the blinds, or how to use the electric kettle as examples.  You know the specific likes and dislikes of your client having worked with them.  Maybe your client likes his/her bed to be made within the hour that they get out of bed or they like starch to be used on their shirts.  This is the kind of information to share.

Another important role is to observe the caregivers and to make sure they are giving your client the best possible care.  It is your obligation to report issues to the agency, family members or Care Managers that hired the caregiver.  If your client is not being cleaned properly or if you're concerned about any type of abuse you need to report this immediately.  

It is not your role to manage the caregiver.  Leave this task to the agency to handle the problems.  But if you witness something that you think is a problem then report it immediately. Sometimes your clients are capable of speaking up for themselves and sometimes it's more difficult for them so, you can be their voice.

I have been in situations where I was not happy with the caregivers because I did not think they were doing enough or they were not attentive enough.  But, my client was very happy with the care and they did not feel there should be a change.  So, you must listen to the client and their needs and wants but also weigh how egregious the situation is for your client.  Sometimes, they don't know that they need better care.

Most often you will come across wonderful caregivers that are amazing.  Sometimes, there are those that prefer to do as little as possible and they don't see their role as important as it is.