Around here you pay $10/hr for an individual to come sit, using an agency will cost more than that. The agency makes money, the employee must be paid, then add in insurance and you are getting up there in price.
I’m sympathetic to your trouble. I, too, have recently been in this mess. My “local” Visiting Angels wanted about 22 hundred every two weeks for around the clock. My mother, eventually, went right into a nursing home. I’m in the northeast. At the time, I was willing to pay it.
3 people making $20/hr for a year is 40K each or 120K total and then the agency fees
If this is coming out of your own pocket you can find much cheaper if you hire direct but keep in mind what you are asking- dependable medical help
Yes, they steal.
When my grandmother was recovering from a broken hip on two occasions, we paid a trusted cousin of my mother to be with her part time each day. It wasn’t much.
When my great uncle died, three ladies helped, taking turns around the clock. I believe that came to $60,000 - $70,000 a year, in all. But it was a small town and that made it easier to find help.
If you belong to a church see if a retired nurse or aid would be available.
Maybe you should check out a long-term care facility.
You could also check with a service like “A Place for Mom”, where they can give you all the info regarding several choices of service; depending on the budget and the type of service needed.
Good luck.
FIL, age 94, is in hospice care at home, his wife is 84 and in pre-hospice, also at home.
why do they say they have to lift her every 2hrs? prevent bedsores??? this is what i used for my Mom when she was dying 
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Unless this is a temporary condition and they are still young 60 to 70s years old,keeping them at home may not be the best choice. Nursing home or assisted living or rehab hospital will cost $3500 to $4500 a month in the Dallas market. The facilities are really better, they have fellow folks to talk with,hourly programs to keep their brains and bodies in shape. We tried to keep both my parents in their home. They both fell, broke hips and ended up in assisted living, nursing and finally memory care and died under hospice care of alzheimer’s. Keeping them at home longer than they were capable even with help was the wrong choice in hindsight. I think we used a company like “visiting angels” and paid $15 to $18 an hour. If you need 24 hour care unless you’re very rich the facility vs hourly care is more economical. Gods speed!
My former boss had to hire hospice care at home for his wife. He thought he would save money that way. He was wrong.
I know most people don’t like to put a loved one in a nursing facility, but while we always hear about unscrupulous operators, neglect and abuse, there are many which give excellent care and you don’t hear about them. My mother was in a home operated by an order of nuns. She was well cared for — a lot better care than she would have received at home.
Is there any insurance coverage for home health care? It might help.
Be careful. Set up hidden cameras. My uncle had hire a company to help his wife some 10+ years ago and some of them rifled thru their belongings.
I'm interviewing provider tonight who is non-affiliated with a company, so we'll see what the cost difference is.
That’s $15 and hour. Not unreasonable. It also requires 2-3 shift of people working in unison, which means you need an agency. If you can’t pay that amount, then cut it to just the hours she’s awake, and you sit with her the rest of the time.
This is usually when Hospice cares steps in with Medicare/Medicaid. If you don’t have a social worker on the case, then contact hospice care and get one. You’ll need med’s and constant care, and winging that when you know nothing about it or who/what’s available is problematic.
Does she have supplemental or health insurance beside Medicare? They may be able to pay at least part of the expenses.
When my mom was alive, she was a certified nurse’s aid who ran her own ad in the “Jobs Wanted” section of our local paper. She sat with the elderly often and took care of most of their needs that didn’t require a hospital or a doctor.
You might try that route (look in the classifieds), but make sure you get references.
When my mom finally fell ill and required hospice, we got a list of sitters. We found one who would sit with her during the day (while I was at work), and I would see to her at night. We had her come to the house, mom and I interviewed her and hired her. It was about $10 an hour back then for 4-5hrs a day/5 days a week. Friends and family filled in the gaps.
You might also check with some friends and co-workers who may be or have been in a similar situation.
Let me also put in a huge plug for hospice care.
Hospice took over the care of my parents, and they became the case managers were paid for by medicare and were the most kind, loving, religious, wonderful people i have ever worked with. Your parents do not have to be at end of life, just running down and with in a year or two of possible death. The nursing homes and doctors had them on to many drugs that often interfere with each other. For instance it was keeping my dad up all night and had him sleeping during the day. The Hospice nurse fixed all of that knew exactly the right things to use and involved me in 100% of the decisions. Hospice even sent in a social worker and a visiting pastor who were just wonderful. Let me tell you for both my parents, myself and my family, hospice allowed me to give my parents the dignified end of life quality of life they deserved. It also allowed me to keep my job, deal with my Autistic daughter, my marriage and my own emotional baggage of watching my mom and dad waste away and lose their brilliant minds with alzheimer’s. The people who work for Hospice do it as a career choice because they care. For several years I did all of this care myself, ran over every day at lunch, many nights and weekends. You can only do that for so long before it takes its toll on you personally and your family and career.
Nursing home is always cheaper and the care is better. It sucks but it is better.
My mom’s in-home care slept through the call button that brought EMS
It is all terrible for everyone. Modern Medicine... what has it done to us? We once died peacefully at home or in the hospital after a short but terminal illness. Now, with the aid of the “best care money can buy” we struggle out losing our mobility, freedom, faculties and often our dignity in the process.
On average, we live no longer than most of the rest of the modern world but we spend a whole lot more money doing it.
In my family we go through the same things the other FReepers here describe. Can’t find help, costs a fortune, we can’t drop our work and go take care of ________ ourselves, constant worry and strain from one crisis to the other, good days and bad days but increasing numbers of bad days and on and on. I think we are lucky. We found a competent and apparently caring place near my sis for Mom to go to. It isn’t home but it is the best we could do. It sure isn’t what Dad wanted or what I promised him but I didn’t know the price of the promise when I made it. It tears me up for failing him.
I hope I am somehow blessed as an old family friend was. He went out to feed and check on his cows. Took his cow dog with him. They didn’t come home at the usual time. Went out to the farm and found him leaning up against the wheel on his truck with his dog beside him. He was dead. Apparently got out of the truck, fed, felt bad, sat on the ground leaning up against the truck and died. I want to die in the field with my boots on but don’t bury me in Texas! Please take me back to Oklahoma.