Finding a Good Caregiver

It takes a special kind of person to be a good caregiver. Most of us have a tendency to get impatient when faced with the kind of tasks all caregivers must provide, but those who make a living at caring for others should have special skills and personality traits that make them good at what they do. When you’re shopping around for assisted living facilities, pay special attention to certain indicators that can tell you a lot about the people you’ll be dealing with.

• Direct care providers need to be people-oriented. Watch for facial reactions and indications of empathy when talking with any facility’s employees. Do they seem to care? You can usually tell when someone’s putting on a false front, but active listeners make it easy to talk and open up. You’ll often find yourself telling them far more than you had planned without even realizing it.
• Caregivers must also have good attention to detail. If healthcare workers are buzzing about, knocking things over, or forgetting simple things, it could be a sign of disorganization. You don’t want to entrust your health to someone who’s likely to make mistakes when it comes to administering prescription drugs or forget to change a bandage. Watch for signs that your caregiver seems to have things under control.
• Note any signs of personal or occupational stress when you’re evaluating any facility. Do workers complain about their own family situations or make offhand remarks about other residents? You may overhear conversations between employees that could also indicate the staff is overworked, underpaid, underappreciated, or otherwise ill-equipped to provide the highest standard of care. Everybody has a bad day now and then, but there are easily identifiable signs that the problem goes deeper than that. When morale seems to be low in general, it could be an indication of systemic problems.
• A good caregiver will respect their patients’ independence. Some folks just have a need to be needed, and will quickly take over even mundane tasks that the patient may be able to do for themselves. Watch out for these do-gooders, as their needs may take priority over your own. Try setting a minor boundary (“I can do it myself”) and see how they respond. Do they promote your independence or take over when you ask them not to?

Evaluating caregivers is something most of us aren’t trained to do. When we tour a facility, our attention is usually focused on many other things. Remember that the quality of care you will receive is heavily impacted by the staff, and be sure to choose carefully when deciding who you will work with on a daily basis.