Re: Janie getting paid helpers

[Guest guest]

Janie and everyone else who is interested:

This is just my experience. I live alone. Before I left the hospital after

my back surgery, I talked to the social worker there and tried to get help

set up for home. This did not work the greatest, but I did get home physical

therapy and home bathing help for a short while after surgery. My doctor

prescribed it and my health insurance paid for it.

Some of the same companies that do the hands on type care like above also

have a separate division that helps with household stuff. Some are called

homemakers or companions or things like that. There are also companies that

just specialize in non-nursing, non-hands on care - just household stuff and

they tend to be cheaper than the ones that also have divisions that do home

physical therapy or bathing help.

Initially, because my injuries were due to a car accident, the car insurance

would reimburse me for replacement services. Things I used to do before the

accident but could no longer do myself. Replacement services come out of the

same car insurance pot of money available for lost wages, so any amount you

get in replacement services reduces the amount available for lost wages and

vice versa. I could pick whatever company I wanted and sometimes even just

hired a private individual. I would pay them, submit it to the car insurance

and get reimbursed later. However, I now just have to pay it all out of my

own pocket, since I have exhausted my limit for lost wages and replacement

services. I have heard some programs exist, usually for seniors - so I don't

qualify, where you can get volunteers through the county or community

volunteer organizations or the Red Cross to help with yard work or driving

you to doctor appointments or various things. It takes some calling around

to find out what is available.

How I find help:

I have looked in the yellow pages under Home Health Services and started

calling the ones closest to my home (the ones closest to my home are more

likely to have someone in my area who can help me, the ones that are 30+ min.

away are more likely not to have someone close to me, and the ones right in

the heart of the city are more likely to have people working there who need

to take the bus to your house, if you're not on a busline, this can be a

problem) and asking if they have homemaker services or help with cleaning,

laundry, errands, and cooking (or whatever you need help with) and if they

don't, do they know of any place that does? Also, I need help with cleaning

cat pans as I can't lift a 20 pound bag of cat litter. So, I needed to ask

if they could help me with that. Most places would not. Sometimes it takes

calling 10 or more places before you can find one that even does homemaking,

but if you are persistent, you can probably find one or more.

Besides yellow pages, I have called hospitals, places listed for home care in

my health insurance provider book - most of them don't do it but may know

companies that do, individuals or small companies that do cleaning (some are

willing to help with errands or cooking, too), looking in the yellow pages

under House Cleaning, ask people you know, sometimes a friend may know

someone who is out of work and wants to do some odd jobs, find a cheap

housecleaner in a small local newspaper. Big house cleaning companies tend

to be expensive and have set rules about what the will or will not do.

Little companies where only one or two of them do cleaning tend to be more

willing to do a variety of things, especially if they're less busy and need

the work - they also tend to be cheaper.

The companies that have been the most helpful to me are the ones where they

only have homemaker type services. They tend to be cheaper and more geared

towards finding people that are good at that. My current one advertises for

employees with ads reading " Volunteer with a paycheck. " They try to get

people who want to make a difference in someone's life. They can do what

they call general/light cleaning (not heavy duty stuff - example most of

them will clean the kitchen floor with a sponge mop, but not get down on

hands and knees to wash it, as a policy they won't do things like cleaning

windows) They usually see themselves as companies that are companions for

the elderly and drive people or help people carry things on errands and

things like that. So they don't want you to just hire them for only

cleaning. They want to chat with you while they clean and not just do

straight cleaning. I usually split up the cleaning and split up the errands

so we do a combination of both most days that they come. Some people only

hire them to do cooking, visit, and remind someone to take their pills. Some

companies have employees that will drive you in their own cars - usually for

a high charge per mile, some will let employees drive your car and then you

don't pay the company for mileage, and they didn't mind if I wanted to try

driving to somewhere myself and then have them drive me home if I needed

help. If I felt up to it, I could drive both ways, but I usually hurt too

much. They help me lift and carry things on errands.

These companies usually have mostly elderly clients and a small amount of

disabled clients. Most have a 3 hour minimum. I've heard some clients get

their services paid for by the county. Usually, every day they come, I make

a list of what I want help with that day and I let them know what I want to

do that day. In the beginning, you have to explain where supplies are and

how you want specific things done. At first, it can be frusterating having

to explain everything. I usually hang around, chat with them, and pay

attention to what they're doing, let them know if I want something done

differently or not at all or whatever. After they've come a while, they know

the routine. But I can tell them not to do certain things if there are

things I can do myself and don't want to pay for and I can ask them to do the

harder things.

In practice, if you ask an individual helping you, they might do things not

normally done by people in their company, on a rare occasion, and if you are

nice about it and say they can say yes or no, you are just asking if they

might consider helping you with x, they might actually do it. I've had

people help me with making photocopies of my medical bills and things I

needed to submit to the car insurance and my attorney, do a little light snow

shoveling of my little sidewalk, help with a little weeding in my garden,

organizing some papers, moving a few things around so I can reach them

better, washing removable windows, and just other odds and ends not normally

listed in what their company does.

I have also had to hire a handyman to help me with things sometimes. I live

in a townhouse with an association so I don't have much in the way of

shoveling or yard work. Once in a while, I have also hired a professional

organizer to help me straighten out all my papers and medical bills that keep

piling up, plus move around and organize some things around my house like

stuff in closets. I physically can't keep up with it all anymore.

Professional organizers tend to be expensive but very effective. Mine really

helps me get through the papers even though I'm emotional about dealing with

all the medical and legal ones, she helps me to just keep going through them

and get it done. There's a great book called Organizing from the Inside Out

by Morgenstern. She's been on public television and Oprah helping

people to organize their homes and offices. Her book actually makes me feel

motivated to get things done and I used to be able to do it before all my

injuries. Her book and another book I read recommended the National

Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO)

http://www.napo.net/member/form.html and that's how I found a woman in my

area to help me.

Sometimes I think I about trying to find a high school or college student to

help me with some things. I've also thought about moving to a bigger house

and getting one or more roommates who could help me with stuff. I wonder if

you could find a high school or college student to help out with your

grandson? Or maybe you could get help from the government to pay for daycare

or something? I hope this information helps some of you out there. Have a

great day!

Mara

lakelover125