A list of agencies can show names, stars, and review counts. None of those is a check of how an agency behaves in a home. A reference call is one check, and it works only when every agency on your list is asked the same questions. This guide sets out how to make those calls and what to write down.
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.
Ask the agency for families, not a script
Request families who have used the agency for non-medical help in a setting like yours: similar hours, similar tasks, and a similar part of the county. If the agency offers only names it chose itself, say so on your sheet. Ask whether those families agreed to be contacted.
Use the same questions for every agency
Keep the question list short and fixed. Ask how the schedule was set and whether it held. Ask how a change in hours was handled and how long it took to get the change in writing. Ask whether the same worker or a small set of workers came to the home. Ask how a concern was raised and how the agency answered it. Ask whether the family would choose the agency again. Stay with schedule, tasks, communication, and changes. Health questions go to the family's doctor, not to a reference call.
Write the answers in the family's words
Record each answer as the family gave it, marked as the family's account. Do not turn one call into a verdict. Mark a call as incomplete when the family did not answer a question. Your sheet should show what each family said, which questions went unanswered, and whether the agency offered the families itself or you found them another way.
Check the references against the public file
A family's account is one source. Before you put an agency on a final list, check its registration and public record. Start with How to check any home health agency, and treat the listing data only as a starting list, never as the check itself.