Families often hire for the hours at home and then find the real gap is outside the house. Before you write the job, find out which problem you are solving.

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.

Step 1: List the outings from the last few weeks

Write down each trip your parent needed or wanted to take: appointments, pharmacy pickups, grocery runs, church, visits with friends. For each one, mark who took it, whether it happened on time, and whether it was moved.

A pharmacy pickup is an errand, and a non-medical caregiver can run it. Decisions about the medicine itself stay with the family, the doctor and the pharmacist.

  • Outing: ____ Who took it: ____ On time: yes or no ____ Moved: yes or no ____
  • Outing: ____ Who took it: ____ On time: yes or no ____ Moved: yes or no ____
  • Outing: ____ Who took it: ____ On time: yes or no ____ Moved: yes or no ____

Step 2: Count who said yes

For each outing, ask who was the one person who could say yes. If the answer is nearly always you, the gap is probably a ride gap. Write the count.

  • Total outings listed: ____
  • Outings you handled personally: ____

Step 3: Look for the signs of a ride gap

  • An appointment was moved because no one was free to drive.
  • The same person is named for nearly every outing.
  • A list of errands has sat on the refrigerator for more than a week.

Step 4: Look for the signs of a home gap

  • Your parent is alone at home during hours you cannot cover.
  • Meals or household tasks slip when no one is in the house.
  • Your parent asks for help with things inside the house, not outside it.

Count the signs in each list. The longer list tells you which problem to write first.

Step 5: Write the job in the right order

If the ride gap is larger, the hiring request must name outings, with times and places, and not only hours at home. Ask each candidate or agency whether the caregiver will drive your parent, and in which vehicle. Ask what the written policy says about driving, and read that policy yourself before you agree to anything. If a caregiver does not drive or does not want to, that is a fit answer, not a failure of the search.

  • Outings to name in the request: ____
  • Vehicle used for outings: ____
  • Written driving policy requested and received: yes or no ____

To see how this desk checks each sheet before it is published, read How We Write the Sheets.