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Caregiving can be very exhausting, and limited sleep if the client needs your help during the night. Before you know it, you are doing the work of 3 shifts per day. And trying to leave that arrangement can be difficult, the family would guilt you.
If you like doing caregiving work, the caregiving Agencies are always looking for good people. That way you would get a paycheck for work completed. The agency also may have workman's comp insurance in case you get hurt on the job (back injury is not not common). Plus, if you find yourself with a difficult patient or unruly family members, you can contact the Agency.
Exchanging housing for home care is really not a good thing. It ends up the Caregiving being taken advantage of. Housing is usually a room in Clients house. Because the Caregiver is there most of the time, its expected they care for Client 24/7 and with no pay how are you going to care for your needs. There are Labor Laws protecting live-ins. They deserve payment, the room is a perk. You work a certain amount of hours with time off. The client is your employer and as such should be taking out payroll deductions and sending those deductions to the propper agencies. There are horror stories on this forum where the aides have no way out when they are being taken advantage of. Right now there is a post where the person was just renting a room. Was asked to help landlord a few hours a day. It morphed into full-time and OP is not getting paid.
You need to have an exit plan. Somewhere to go if the arrangement does not work out. A contract stipulating what your responsibilities will be and the hours you will work. Signed and notarized. You cannot be worked 24/7 with no time off. Thats slavery.
Many times when you are a live-in, you work more than 40 hrs that you are not compensated for. You don't get the increase in OT hours, paid vacation and PTO or subs when you are sick. You will have to deal with less privacy and living in someone else's space -- possibly a demented senior who no longer can recognize boundaries and has challenging behaviors (like wandering, aggression).
You need to be paid in legitimate paychecks so that money is being withheld for your own SS retirement account. This doesn't happen if you are "bartering" services. The live-in arrangement seems to favor the care receiver, not the giver. Go into it with your eyes wide open. Labor laws vary by state. In my home state (MN) a caregiver is never considered a contract worker.
Never accept a job without a written contract that you read thoroughly, and make sure you also get cash compensation as well as the barter. If you are cashless, this will be a big problem for you at some point (just read some of the posts on this website from live-ins who are in a "stuck" situation).