Hiring a Respite Care Worker

So you have decided to hire a Respite Care worker(RCW)! This is great news because you are now adding an important resource to your team. Respite Care workers are available to care for the needs of a child or an adult with special needs. This allows the usual caregiver to get a much needed break from his/her duties. As a mother of 5 children, 3 with special needs, I know how important this kind of help can be. Just having a person come for 3-4 hours a few times a week can help me cope with my job as a parent of special needs children. It allows me time to just shut my eyes and reflect on my week, plan my next week, or even to just concentrate on myself for a little.

I remember when I first started looking for a Respite Care worker. I was confused as to what I was even looking for. Did I want somebody to just watch the kids? Perhaps I needed some light house cleaning done more? I was so confused about what a respite care worker does and it made it hard for me to hire the right person. Now that I am well versed in this field I will share what I have learned.

It all depends on where you live and what the going rate is for this kind of care. You need to take into account how much work your respite care worker will do and whether they need to use their own vehicle for the work or not. In my case, respite care workers make between $12-$15 an hour. On some occasions the hired respite will need to accompany somebody to an out-of-town appointment. In this case we pay a flat $60 a day, instead of a per hour rate. It is suggested that you pay the higher per-hour rate if you want to keep the respite help long-term.

The answer to this question is easy. A respite care worker should be able to do whatever you would have normally had to do during the time frame you have them scheduled. Whether if be giving a person a bath, feeding or diapering the special needs person, or even attending appointments with or without you. Sometimes a respite care worker will go on a family vacation with the family just to make things run more smoothly. The job description really is endless. Whatever crops up that pertains to the special needs child or adult is what the respite care worker needs to help with. You will need to find the right person to fill the position. In our case, we needed somebody who was familiar with seizures and autism. We needed somebody willing to learn how to do injections. We needed a strong person to lift our daughter if needed, and somebody who could handle the tantrums of a child with autism. We needed a rock-solid individual whose heart was in his/her work and was flexible enough to commit to our requested hours.

You will need to ask a potential employee his/her background and training. Ask open questions that will encourage him to talk. Yes/No questions may limit the amount of information you get from your questions. Find out what experience they have regarding the needs in your family. Do they have experience with G-tubes? What about seizures? You have to come up with the right questions to fit your individual situation.

Find out about their availability. Are they flexible? Do they mind last minute calls if there is an emergency? Do they have transportation? If they use the bus system you will need to set some guidelines regarding the schedules of the buses. Do you mind if they leave 10 minutes early to catch their bus? Will you feel guilty if you watch them walking to the bus stop in a freezing snow storm as your vehicle sits in the driveway? These are all things you need to consider.

References, references, references! This is very important. You are hiring somebody to come into your home and you need to know that this person is who they claim to be. Talk to past employers if you can and call each reference that is given to you. Find out how long they have known this person and if you want (for a small fee) you can get a police check done with the workers consent. The fact is, you need to be safe and keep your family safe. That is a priority. In some cases the RCW will be from an agency and will have the police check already done.

Once you have hired your new RCW it is important to view them as a team member. Speak to them with respect and keep the communication open. I always suggest that you keep a little note book that can be used as a communication journal. This will allow you and your RCW to update each other discreetly if the special needs person is uncomfortable being talked about. (like my 14 year old with aspergers) Be sure to communicate your needs for their services. RCW’s are trained to take their jobs seriously and to follow the directions laid out for them. Make sure you lay those requests out for them. Once your RCW is used to your family you may no longer need the communication journal, and they may be able to do their job without your guidance. If you get to this stage you know that you have one very wonderful respite care worker.