My sister may lose her job as a plant tech. Her house flooded due to an icemaker line. My God, the damage.
She has been an employee of this company for roughly 18 years. She is thoughtful, polite, nurturing and loves to read. But she had to take off 3 weeks for her home disaster. Employers don't like that. It used to be ok to leave workers in your house without you being there, it is not like that now.
Should her job go south, I think she would be a good companion aide. What would you expect from that person? I am just feeling this out. She is 66. I don't know she would do. She is comfortable financially, but helps her kids. Looking for ideas and suggestions. She would be good at reading to charge, discussing current events, light housekeeping, etc. I see ads for this kind of thing. She does not know I am asking this.
Rude poster, you are so very welcome to report my question. Why don't you do that instead of being a jerk. Ok? Good!
If inappropriate, I personally will ask it be removed. There are some elders who just need a companion or visitor for short time. I am simply trying to find out if there is a need.
Newbiewife, thank you.
I did that as a volunteer position for several years and I was just that, a companion sitter.
Basic job description.
I could serve prepared food and drinks.
I could play games, cards, do puzzles, etc. with my companion.
I could not do any kind of actual caregiving.
No medications could be handled by me and I couldn't even remind them to take.
These were the rules of the organization, oh yeah, I couldn't be asked to stay longer than 4 hours.
My heart goes out to your sister, I had a wing nut on my toilet break while at work and yep, it was a mess. No fun to deal with water damage.
If she ends up being interested she could probably be as busy as she wanted to be and charge based on what she wanted to do. If she wanted to cook or do housekeeping she could charge more. If she doesn't do hands on care, ie toileting, meds then she wouldn't need any certification or anything.
I personally found it very fulfilling and I became attached to the people I sat with. We all became friends and enjoyed our visits. I worked with elders in financial straits and none of them would have been able to pay anything for this service.
I think it's a great question as many people here will one day be trying to figure out how to fill their days.
When aunt went into a NH shortly before she died, her *friend* would bring her things she needed from home, play bingo and other activities with her at the NH, visit and just sit with her. The family was so appreciative. She had a bright personality and was always dressed really cute and well groomed. I have no idea how they met and worked out the details, but it was a great arrangement.
Any hands on care is a different job description. It would be called a caregiver.
Maybe check out here:
https://dailycaring.com/senior-companions-volunteers-give-you-break/
and here: https://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/senior-corps/senior-corps-programs/senior-companions
I was so happy to get someone -- a man only about 10 years younger than him -- to come visit my isolated dad once a week, take him out to do simple things. They used to listen to jazz albums together. It was a great gift to my dad, and to me because I had an emotional buffer for a change, someone else to bring my dad's spirits up and engage him.
I think the man was paid somewhere in the range of $15/hour, with only a couple of hours paid per weekly visit, but he was worth so much more than that to my dad, and to me.
Segoline, if you're going to post here with any kind of question, ya gotta take the good and leave the rest... right? It's not a trainwreck if someone says "she should Google" because that's also a tip in its own right, isn't it? That's how I know how long CNA school is, because I looked it up online.
I can't help but think some of these discussions would go so much better in person. :-)