Before the first shift, the household needs a written answer to three questions: who handles the money in the home, what the aide may accept, and how any purchase made for the client gets recorded. The public files for an agency do not answer any of them. The answers have to come from the agency itself, in writing, and they should be in hand before anyone signs.
Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.
Household money
Ask who holds the cash, the checkbook, and any bank card in the home, and whether an aide is ever allowed to hold a card, a card number, or a personal identification number. Ask who makes a purchase when the household runs out of something, and how the aide reports that purchase back. Ask whether the agency keeps a receipt log, who checks it, and how the family sees it. A clear answer names the person responsible for each item. An answer that only says the agency handles it is a question to ask again.
Gifts, loans, and remembrances
Ask whether the agency has a written rule that covers gifts from the client or the family to the aide, loans of any kind, and any request to be named in a will or other bequest. Ask what the aide is told to do when an offer is made, and whether the agency is told when it happens. Ask whether the rule applies to the agency's own staff, not only to the aide on the first shift.
Anything that involves a will or another legal document belongs with the family's own attorney, not with the agency.
What the file shows and what it does not
From the file: A federal or public registration for an agency shows that the agency exists, where it is registered, and what public checks turned up. It does not show how the agency handles client money or gifts. Mark that gap on the check sheet so no one assumes a clean file answers these questions.
Editorial: Put the answers on the same page as the rest of the check sheet, under a heading of their own, so that the comparison between agencies is side by side. Two agencies that give the same answer in writing are easier to compare than two that answer in conversation.
Put it in the agreement
If an answer matters to the family, ask that it be written into the service agreement or an attached policy the family signs. Check that the agency's definitions use the same words for aide and client that its money and gift policy uses. Keep a copy of the policy with the care binder and bring it up at the first review.
Questions to put on the sheet
Who holds the cash and cards in the home? What does an aide do when a purchase is needed, and how is that purchase reported? Is an aide allowed to accept any gift, loan, or remembrance? What is the written policy, and who signs it? When a question is not answered in writing, what is the escalation path inside the agency?