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My jewelry dissappeared and our pain med diissappeared when we fired him.
He left the state and went back to Texas , his home town and our police dept would not even try to get him back so he got away scott free. Be very very careful.
With that being said caregivers are in general not paid enough for the extremely important services that they provide. Whether it is for a few hours or a full time service, they are in essence providing safety and security for the person they are caring for and reducing the potential of what many call "caregiver burnout" for family caregivers.
Depending on your location the average hourly fee for a home care service who employs their caregivers is anywhere from $17-$20 an hour(often times with a minimum service time). There are variances of course based on the location and the services being provided.
If you decide to use a person who is not employed by a service then you do assume more risk and increased liability. The same applies to the caregiver. However, this does not translate to a low hourly rate. If you put things in perspective a 24 hour service for an agency at the rate of $17 hour is approximately $408/day or $12,240/month.
Reducing the rate by a few dollars is reasonable. If you were to pay a service $20 then reducing it to $18, $17 or even $16 is fair. Reducing it by half is not. As your loved ones needs change so will the role of the live in caregiver. If the person is everything you hoped for then it makes sense pay them fairly to secure the relationship.
The important things to consider for your own safety are a background check for the caregiver, liability insurance (perhaps your homeowners insurance covers this, you'll have to call to ask), and Worker's Compensation must be paid for the caregiver (or you can face heavy fines as the employer). You can pay the person no less than minimum wage for your area (which varies even throughout California, you'll need to look it up), and time and a half after 9 solid hours of care, and time and a half after 45 hours of care in any work week. Those are the minimums. I also recommend that you check all of his/her references.
These are things that a full employment agency does for you, including the insurance, bonding, Worker's Compensation, and extracting state and federal taxes from the caregiver's paycheck. The huge advantage of an agency caregiver is that they have been vetted, and liability falls on the agency, not on your own shoulders as an independent employer.
There should also be a Plan of Care, which is the list of tasks the caregiver is expected to perform. Communication of expectations is key.
As ECAmbassador & Lisa indicated (more risk & liability) - whoever's home is being used can be held liable for injury to the caregiver while performing designated duties in the home. Right now - the level of care and watchfulness may not be much, but as the dementia gets worse, the duties will change. Whatever agreement is drawn up should include the option for either party to ask for periodic 'reconsideration' of expectations and costs.
If you should decide to take the Licensed Caregiver route - please ask the agency if they provide background checks on their employees. Some agencies do not.
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