What questions should I ask when interviewing a caregiver for my dad?

Sheet 11 · The interview

Published September 11, 2026. Desk byline, no clinician. Every fact links to its source.

The office already had their ten minutes. This sheet is for the person who will actually be in the house with your dad in Ballwin, Chesterfield, Eureka, or wherever the kitchen table is. What questions should I ask when interviewing a caregiver for my dad is not the company scorecard. That list lives on the office phone-call sheet. This one is the attendant, sitting down, while you write. Print the page. Fill the blanks while they talk. This desk does not print anyone’s answers, including the paid placement at the bottom. There is no price question on this sheet.

The National Institute on Aging tells you to get as much information as you can about a service before you sign an agreement, and it publishes a worksheet of questions to ask before hiring a care provider. Family Caregiver Alliance’s hiring sheet is the other half of this sit-down: always check references, always do a background check, and ask about care competency, compassion, and reliability. Ask those of the person in the chair.

What questions should I ask when interviewing a caregiver for my dad?

Ask the person. Write every answer. If you cannot write it, it is not an answer. NIA’s task list is the job: personal care, household tasks, food, transportation. Circle what this house needs, then walk the circle with them.

1. How do you do a bath

   Walk me through the last bath you helped with: order, privacy, what you hold, what you do if he is unsteady getting in or out.

   A good answer sounds like A sequence you can write, and that they will follow how this house already does it. NIA names bathing with dressing, grooming, using the toilet, eating, and moving around. Walk away if “I just figure it out” is the whole method, or they will not talk about bathing at all.
2. What do you do if he refuses

   If he says no to the shower, the pants, or the meal, what do you do next, and who do you tell?

   A good answer sounds like They try once, they do not force, they try later, they write it down, and they call you. A refusal is a fact for the notebook, not a contest. Walk away if They joke about making him, they say they never have that problem, or they will not name who they call when he says no.
3. Who do you call at 2am

   If you are in this house overnight and something is wrong, who do you call first: me, 911, or the office? In what order?

   A good answer sounds like A call tree you can tape to the fridge: 911 for a true emergency, then your number, then the office if a company sent them. FCA says accountability is essential and needs to be discussed even before the start of care. Walk away if They do not know, or they will not take a fridge sheet with numbers.
4. Will you write in the notebook

   Before you leave, will you write one line: what he ate, whether the bath happened, and what the next person needs to know?

   A good answer sounds like Yes, every shift, on paper in the house. FCA calls the notebook essential if the care receiver has dementia. The notebook does not replace talking to the worker. Walk away if They say they remember everything, or they do not write things down.
5. Driving

   Will you take him to an appointment? Whose car, yours, mine, or the company’s? Where will you go, and what if he will not get in?

   A good answer sounds like A yes or a no, whose car, and a limit you can write. NIA notes that transportation services can drive people to and from medical appointments. Driving is a question, not an assumption. Walk away if They assume they can take your car without asking, or they will not say whether driving is part of the shift.
6. References I can call this week

   Name two people who saw the work, not two friends. When can I call them?

   A good answer sounds like Two names, two numbers, this week. FCA says always check references, and to ask about care competency, compassion, and reliability. You still place the call. Walk away if They stall, they give only a relative, or they tell you not to call.
7. The Family Care Safety Registry

   Are you registered with Missouri’s Family Care Safety Registry? If not, will you register before the first shift?

   A good answer sounds like Yes, or yes I will, and here is how you can check. DHSS says people who will care for children, seniors, or disabled persons must register with the FCSR, and an employer can request a background check. Citizens can register online for $15.00 plus a $0.55 processing fee. Those figures are the state’s worker-registration fees, not a care rate. Walk away if They will not register, or they say a check “was fine” with no way for you to see it.
8. What you will not do

   Which tasks on this house list will you not do? Bathing, dressing, the toilet, meals, a transfer from bed to chair, driving, the dog?

   A good answer sounds like A limit you can write. NIA’s FAQ says an older adult might need help with household chores, preparing meals, getting dressed, or going to the bathroom. That is personal care and presence. It is not a nurse visit. Medicare.gov describes skilled home health as a different product. If they offer wound care, injections, or anything you think of as nursing, stop and ask which clinician is ordering it. Walk away if They have no limit, they offer to do nursing tasks, or they will not name a task they will refuse.

Ask one more if backup is the job in this house: if you cannot come tomorrow, who do I call. FCA says an agency can provide a substitute if a worker is sick, and that if the person cannot be left alone, coverage for absences must be clarified before care starts. If you hired this person yourself, the backup is yours. “It has never happened” is not a plan. FCA says it takes two or three weeks to determine if your loved one, the home care worker, and you are a good match. This interview is the first data point. Write the answers anyway.

Can I meet the caregiver before the first shift?

Ask, in those words. Family Caregiver Alliance says ask to meet potential caregivers and talk about a care plan before the first shift. FCA’s hiring sheet also says it will be important, at first, to be present to help the attendant and the care receiver establish a successful relationship, and to show the attendant how you do things so the help feels familiar. A company walk-through is not the same as meeting the person who will be there on Tuesday. A stranger who just shows up is not a meeting. Write the name you met.

FCA’s ten tips also say to inquire about caregiver training. Ask what they were trained to do, and who trained them. Then put the plan on paper: duties, hours, backup, the notebook. FCA’s working-successfully page says a written care plan outlines the paid caregiver’s duties. The first-day sheet is what you do after this sit-down, not a substitute for it.

What if the answers are vague?

A vague answer is one you cannot write down. Ask the same question once more, in the same words. If the second answer is still a shrug, a joke, or a speech about how they “just care about people,” stop. You are not scoring warmth. You are filling blanks. FCA’s own line on gut is allowed here as a question of comfort, not as a medical claim: if you feel uncomfortable about a screening procedure, the tip sheet says it may be best to use a different provider. That is still your call, on your pad, with the blanks filled or marked “would not answer.”

You do not need every blank to be fog before you walk. One blank that is the job in this house is enough to keep looking. FCA says if you feel uncomfortable with the person who is sent, you can always ask the agency to send someone else.

What to do tonight

1. Print this page. Two copies if a sibling will sit in.
2. Circle the tasks this house actually needs: bath, dressing, toilet, meals, transfer, driving, overnight.
3. Write your number, one backup number, and 911 at the top, the way they will sit on the fridge later.
4. Sit with the person. Fill every blank or write “would not answer.”
5. Call one reference they named, tonight if the number is in your hand, before you sign anything.

When to ask the care team or the doctor

Which tasks need a nurse, whether a parent is homebound, and whether home health is in the plan are questions for the physician. Do not let an interview decide them. If the person offers to do wound care, injections, or anything you think of as nursing, stop and ask which clinician is ordering it. Non-medical help does not make that call. A sudden change in walking, confusion, eating, or mood is not an interview question. Call the physician who treats them.

Featured, and paid for

New Plan Care

New Plan Care is independently owned non-medical in-home care, Chesterfield, serving Ballwin, Chesterfield, Eureka, Glencoe, Grover, Pacific, Valley Park and St. Louis. If they send a person to this house, put this interview scorecard to that person: the bath, the refusal, the notebook, the registry. Call (314) 405-0887. This desk does not print their answers.

New Plan Care pays for this spot. It is a client of OwnersFirm, which publishes this site, so read it as an advertisement with a phone number rather than as a result, a rank or a recommendation drawn from any of the articles on this page.

Next sheets

• Questions to ask a home care agency before hiring
• The first 72 hours: the first visit and the log

Sources opened 11 September 2026. Full list on the sources page.