A parent who lives alone rarely has just one phone problem. There is a phone nobody set up, a tablet still in its box, and a video call that works on one screen but not another. Each is a small job. Small jobs pile onto whoever lives closest, and that person is usually you.

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.

Name the four jobs before you hire anything

  • Setup: the accounts, the contact list, and the video app installed and tested on the actual device.
  • Upkeep: charging, updates, sound levels, and the charger that walks off.
  • Fixes: the dropped call, the frozen screen, and the app that asks for a new code.
  • Teaching: how to answer, how to hang up, and what to do when it goes wrong, shown more than once.

Write each job on its own line. Beside it, write one of three answers: family, agency, or nobody. Nobody is a legitimate entry, but it is a finding. It tells you the job will fail the first time it breaks.

Ask the agency before you sign

  • Will an aide help set up or fix a device during a visit, or does the aide only use what is already working?
  • If the answer is yes, is that time inside the visit, or does it take a separate line on the bill?
  • Who is the account owner on each device, and will the agency ever need a password?
  • What happens when a call fails during a visit, and who gets the next call?

Write the answers down. If the agency will not say, that silence goes in your notes beside the job it concerns.

Keep passwords in the family

Do not give any hired worker your password or the login for a shared account. Keep the family as the account owner, and give the aide only what a visit needs, such as a charged device already set to the right screen. If a task needs a password, the family handles it on the day, not the aide.

Put device checks on a fixed day

Pick one day each week for a ten-minute check. Is the device charged? Does a test call connect? Did an update ask for attention? Is the volume right? Name the person who owns that check in the written plan. A check nobody owns is a check that does not happen.

Keep device work apart from anything about health, because health questions go to the family's doctor.

Before you compare agencies, read how to read a home care quote so the device help shows up as a line item or as a written no. For how we record silence on each agency's own site, see How We Rate.