This sheet covers the small jobs around a home where a family is arranging help: a loose rail on a stair, a dripping tap, a stuck window, a sticking door, a bulb that needs changing. These jobs tend to arrive in the same week as the hired help question, and they often get handed to whoever happens to be in the room. This sheet sorts each one before anyone starts.

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.

Editorial note: this is a general guide. Nothing here is taken from an agency file. Where a line names a file, it names a file type you can look up yourself.

Three Owners for Every Job

Each small job needs one owner. The choices are the family, a licensed trade, or a hired aide. An aide is a non-medical caregiver, so the question is whether that agency's written task list names the job at all. If the list does not name it, the answer is no, and the job goes to the family or a trade. Editorial: do not rely on what an aide says they are willing to do. Rely on the written list.

Work that involves electrical wiring, gas, water supply lines, or any climb above a step stool belongs with a licensed trade or with the family, not with an aide. The method for that work is the trade's call, not the aide's.

The Check Sheet

  • Write each job on its own card: the room, what is wrong, and what the fix touches (a wall, a tap, a stair, a window).
  • Mark the owner on each card: family, trade, or aide. Mark aide only if the written task list names the job.
  • Mark whether the job needs a ladder, a power tool, or the water shut off. Any card with a ladder or power tool moves away from the aide.
  • Mark whether the job touches wiring or gas. Those cards go to a licensed trade only.
  • Look up the trade's license in the state licensing lookup or with the city or county business license office for the place where the work is done. Editorial: check that the license name matches the business name on the estimate.
  • Ask for a written estimate before any work starts, and keep it with the card.

Questions for the Agency

  • Does the written task list include any repair work? If so, which jobs, and where do they appear on the list?
  • If an aide sees a loose rail or a dripping tap, who is told, and how is that report written down?
  • Will an aide move furniture, carry a ladder, or use tools in the house?
  • If the agency books a trade for you, is the trade's bill separate from the agency's own bill, and who signs for the work?

Questions for the Trade

  • Is the business licensed for this kind of work, and can you show the license number?
  • Will you give a written estimate that lists the parts, the labor, and the cleanup?
  • Who removes the old part, and who sweeps up after the work?
  • What is covered after the work is done, for how long, and is that written on the estimate?

The Public Record

Two different files cover two different kinds of help. Home health agencies that are Medicare-certified appear in a federal record. Non-medical in-home care in Missouri is a separate category with its own file. Before you rely on an agency's word about what it does, read Home health versus non-medical home care: which record to check. For a step-by-step lookup of an agency, see How to check any home health agency in five federal lookups.

Trade licenses are not in the desk's files. Editorial: look for them in the state licensing lookup and with the city or county business license office. What you find there is the answer, not the name on the truck.

Planning the Week

Lay the cards out on one table, then count the owners. Put the family jobs on days the family is already in the house. Put the trade jobs on a booked day, with the trade's written estimate in hand. Put the aide jobs only on the written list, and only within the visit window the agency has set. If a card has no clear owner, it goes back to the family for a decision before the week starts.

Marking the Sheet

Mark each line as one of two kinds. A line taken from a file or a signed paper gets the name of that file or paper beside it. An editorial line gets the word editorial beside it. Keep the cards, the estimates, and the signed pages together in one folder, so that when a trade or an agency changes, the record of who was told to do what stays in one place.