We think they do, but they’re forced to terminate relationships either for economic reasons or for liability risk reasons. The Catholic definition of mercy is defined as the disposition to be kind and forgiving. Founded on compassion, mercy differs from compassion or the feeling of sympathy in putting this feeling into practice with a readiness to assist. It is therefore the ready willingness to help anyone in need, especially in need of pardon or reconciliation.
ICONNEL has done everything it can in the past to assist its clients, even when the client doesn’t pay. However, we do not operate on government subsidies, grants, and corporation donations. We only exist on the private donations from previous and current clients, and the fees collected from private duty placements. Consequently, our reason to terminate relationships are almost always economic.
When a client thinks that the value of a placement agency is an unnecessary cost in hiring a caregiver, we try to present them to think about a simple question:
Can you find someone better than an agency who spends their entire energy sifting through and identifying the best caregivers in the market? How about a month or two months later when the caregiver the client hired needs to be replaced?
For this reason, many people might simply go along with the government influenced dynamics of hiring a home health care agency who takes care of supervision and payroll to the caregiver. That leads to the main question of this blog:
Does a home health care agency who employs certified caregivers have the same quality standards of a private duty agency who places their caregivers?
The answer goes back to the agency’s disposition on mercy. There are three points in our answer:
Firstly, some placement agencies could care less about owning up to their responsibility about placing good caregivers to families in need, especially if the caregiver is the one paying the fees to get a job. ICONNEL believes that this is presents a conflict of interest especially if the agency also collects a fee from the client.
Secondly, ICONNEL does care about its clients, but also cares tremendously about identifying the best people available in the market. ICONNEL has seen a significant difference in both the emotional intelligence, age, life experiences of caregivers who are placed versus caregivers who are certified. For example, ICONNEL is rarely able to place anyone who is certified with less than two years of experience because they are not emotionally intelligent enough or capable of handling the job. Therefore, we usually require or seek caregivers with at least a two to four-year college degree. This alone changes the caliber of personnel, and by adding our own high standards which are far beyond the state required standards for certification, we now have people who can be placed as stellar caregivers at reasonable wage rates. Consequently, caregivers of this caliber have no interest in certifying themselves to work for a lesser wage. We don’t blame them.
Thirdly, ICONNEL provides the necessarily counseling and handholding needed to the caregiver and client until the relationship matures.
So, who do you think is best for your family member, a certified aid or a private duty caregiver?
ICONNEL has seen that private duty caregivers registered with a well-organized merciful agency provides a comprehensive and higher quality alternative to home health aides. Because people are not cattle, ICONNEL also believes that a well-organized merciful agency tends to come from small family owned agencies, not large ones. 😊 Therefore, the average agency lasts only 18 months in business. They can’t find good caregivers to match the price points that are forced upon them by the industry. They simply don’t exist. We have been around for over 25 years.
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