An elderly care helper at home: her role, its limits, and how the family prepares

What the helper does

Help with daily life

Help moving around the house, sitting and standing, and getting ready for the day, according to what the elderly person needs and what’s agreed.

Meals

Preparing simple meals suited to the diet set by the doctor or the family, and helping with eating if needed.

Company and attention

Someone close by during the day who notices what the elderly person needs and contacts the family if anything unusual happens.

Simple daily organisation

Helping keep the elderly person’s room and belongings in order, and reminding them of appointments the family has set.

What isn’t her role: medical care

An elderly care helper provides non-medical help. Giving injections, changing medical dressings, handling medical devices, following complex medical conditions and treatment decisions all need health professionals from licensed home healthcare providers, or follow-up from the treating doctor.

The distinction isn’t a formality — it protects the elderly person above anyone else. If their condition needs regular medical care, ask the treating doctor about the home healthcare services available, and make the daily help complement them rather than replace them. In an emergency, call the ambulance immediately.

When a family needs this help

• When the elderly person needs help moving or with daily activities, and nobody in the family can stay with them all day.
• When the family is worn out caring alone, and it starts affecting family members’ health and work.
• After the elderly person leaves hospital, if the doctor recommends daily non-medical help.
• When the elderly person lives alone and the family wants someone near them.

In every case, ask the elderly person what they want and are comfortable with, if they’re able to say — their acceptance of the help is a key part of its success.

Set the duties clearly before requesting

The most common misunderstanding is asking for a helper to care for an elderly relative, then expecting her to do all the housework too. Caring for an elderly person takes attention and time, and can’t be done well alongside cleaning the whole house, cooking for the whole family and looking after the children. A worker’s work must stay within what the contract sets.

Before requesting, write down what the elderly person needs each day: mobility, meals, company, appointments. Set the working hours, rest times, and who in the family deals with the worker and follows up with her. The list helps the licensed provider make an offer that fits your needs.

Preparing the home

Safe movement

Remove slippery rugs and obstacles from corridors, light the way well at night, and fit grab bars in the bathroom by the toilet and shower if possible.

The elderly person’s room

A bed at a suitable height, daily items within reach, and a way to call for help if needed.

Clear information

A list of family, doctor and ambulance numbers, and medication times as set by the doctor, written in a language the worker understands.

The worker’s accommodation

A suitable place to rest and sleep if she lives in — a rested worker is better able to care. Read preparing a domestic worker’s accommodation.

Dignity in care

An elderly person isn’t a patient waiting to be served, but the head of the household and the family’s elder. Good care respects that: it leaves them what they can still do for themselves, asks before deciding for them, and protects their privacy in dressing and bathing. A family member being present in the first days helps the worker understand their habits, what they like and what bothers them.

Dignity includes the worker too: caring for an elderly person is physically and emotionally demanding, and needs real daily and weekly rest and appreciation from the family. Read rights and obligations and the first week with a new domestic worker.

Communication between the family and the helper

In elderly care, the worker is often the first to notice changes: eating less, unusual tiredness, more forgetfulness than usual, or a pain they complain of. So agree with her from the start on a clear way to tell the family: whom she calls, when, which things she reports immediately and what can wait until the evening.

A simple notebook or a daily message noting what the elderly person ate, when they slept and any observation helps. It isn’t about monitoring the worker, but helping her work as part of a care team with the family and the doctor. Make sure at least one person in the family communicates with her in a language she understands, so important information doesn’t get lost between family members.

How to request the service

Elderly care helpers are provided through licensed providers: licensed recruitment offices if the family will recruit a worker under contract, or licensed domestic labour companies for monthly or hourly services, where the worker stays employed by the company. Each option has its advantages — read comparing recruitment, monthly and hourly services.

Request an elderly care helper from licensed providers in your city, stating what the elderly person needs, the hours of help, and whether she would live in or come by the hour.