Can I hire someone privately?

Posted: November 20, 2014, 12:14PM

The short answer is yes. The longer answer is yes but be cautious. Private duty caregivers are not affiliated with an agency so it is up to the person responsible - caregiver or care receiver - to find the private caregiver. Hospital social service departments or discharge planners may keep private duty lists. The people are often not known by the facility (cannot be endorsed or recommended by the facility) and are usually not bonded or insured. Lists consist of names & contact information of people who may have called and provided only that - name and phone number. If you get a list, ask your friends, church family, minister/priest/rabbi, and any others who may have used private caregivers to review the list to see if there are workers they know - good or bad! Highlight the names as good or "not so good". Word-of-mouth may be the way you find out about an available caregiver also.

Keep in mind that as the responsible person, you will need to contact the potential employee(s), check on availability, discuss wages, check references thoroughly and to your satisfaction, work out the fiscal requirements (Social Security withholding, FICA, Workers comp, etc or make sure they are taking care of this), and determine what Plan B is if your paid caregiver needs to be off.

Contact us for the informational booklet "In Home Assistance: Are You Thinking of Hiring Privately?" which offers information on hiring privately as well as some checklists and guides to help you decide if this is the way you want to go.