Questions to Ask Potential Caregivers
Interview questions for a family hiring an in-home caregiver, covering training and its limits, safe transfers, medication records, what happens in an emergency, references, and how cover and updates will work.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Tell me about the people you have cared for recently, and what their days looked like.
Why ask it
An answer built around routines, breakfast, medication times, a short walk, an afternoon rest, shows someone who has done the daily work. Answers that stay at the level of enjoying helping people often mean brief or heavily supervised placements.
Have you cared for someone with dementia, or with limited mobility? What was the hardest part?
Why ask it
The hardest part is the useful half of the question. Experienced carers name something concrete: the same question asked forty times after four in the afternoon, or someone refusing to use a walker. Anyone who says there were no hard parts has not done much of it.
What training and certificates do you hold, and when were they last renewed?
Why ask it
First aid and CPR certificates expire, often on a two-year cycle. Ask to see the card and the date rather than taking the claim. A certificate confirms a skill was once demonstrated; it says nothing about judgement, which is what the rest of these questions are for.
Which tasks are outside what you are trained or permitted to do?
Why ask it
In most places an unlicensed carer may not give injections, change sterile dressings, or adjust a dose. Someone who describes their own limits clearly is safer than someone who says they can handle anything, because the second answer means you will not be told when they are out of their depth.
Can you move or transfer someone safely on your own, and what equipment would you need here?
Why ask it
Transfers are where injuries happen, to the carer as often as to the person being lifted. The answer you want mentions equipment, a belt, a board, a hoist, and a willingness to refuse an unsafe lift rather than attempt it. Claims about being strong enough are not a plan.
How do you keep track of medications, meals, and anything out of the ordinary during a shift?
Why ask it
Ask to see a real example from previous work, with names removed. Notes kept only in someone's head cannot be handed to the next shift, and cannot answer a doctor who asks when the confusion or the swelling actually started.
Walk me through what you would do if you arrived and found her on the floor.
Why ask it
The order is the answer. Do not move her, check whether she is responsive and breathing, call for help, then call the family. Anyone whose first instinct is to lift her back into a chair may turn a fall into a fracture.
At what point would you call an ambulance rather than calling us first?
Why ask it
You are listening for named signs: chest pain, a blow to the head, a suspected broken bone, sudden confusion, difficulty breathing. A carer who waits for family permission before calling for help costs you time you may not be able to spare.
If she refuses her medication, or refuses to wash, what do you do?
Why ask it
Refusal is routine rather than exceptional. Workable answers involve stepping away and returning later, changing the approach or who asks, and reporting the pattern so a doctor can hear about it. A carer who talks about making her comply is describing a daily fight.
What would you cook over a week?
Why ask it
Ask for a week rather than a philosophy. You find out quickly whether they can cook at all, whether they can work around a soft diet, a salt limit, or diabetes, and whether the same three meals will repeat until nobody wants to eat.
How do you help someone keep doing things themselves when it takes far longer that way?
Why ask it
Doing everything for a person is faster, and it costs them function within weeks. Listen for practical patience: clothes laid out in order, letting her wash her own face, standing by rather than taking over. Slogans about dignity are not the same as method.
What would you do if she became angry with you, or accused you of taking something?
Why ask it
This is common, particularly with dementia, where accusations of theft recur often enough that a carer should expect them. The answer you want is staying calm, not arguing the point, and telling the family the same day. Carers who plan to prove her wrong tend to escalate the situation.
Are you working independently or through an agency, and who carries the insurance?
Why ask it
This determines who is liable if she or the carer is injured, who handles tax and payroll, and who arranges a replacement. Hiring privately is lawful and often cheaper, but the insurance, the paperwork, and the cover all become the family's responsibility.
Will you consent to a background check, and can we speak to two families you have worked for?
Why ask it
Hesitation here is reason enough to stop. Speak to previous families by phone rather than reading a letter, and ask two things: what went well, and why the work came to an end. The second question is the one that produces new information.
Which hours can you commit to, and how much notice do you need to change a shift?
Why ask it
Care arrangements fail over scheduling far more often than over skill. Fix the hours and the notice period in writing now, while everyone is agreeable, so that a difficult week does not become a negotiation.
What happens when you are unwell, or away?
Why ask it
The answer tells you whether you have hired one person or a service. If there is no cover, the gap will land on a family member, so decide now who that person is and whether they can realistically do it.
What is not part of the job for you?
Why ask it
Much better named at the start than discovered on a bad morning. Common lines include driving, personal laundry, pets, cleaning rooms other than hers, and handling cash or bank cards. Write down whatever they say and keep it with the care plan.
How would you rather we stay in touch, and how often should we expect to hear from you?
Why ask it
Agree both the channel and the rhythm: a few lines at the end of each shift, a phone call for anything unusual. Without that, families tend to swing between hearing nothing for a fortnight and receiving alarming messages late at night.
If one of us asks you to do something differently from what we have agreed, what do you do?
Why ask it
Worth asking whenever more than one relative is involved, which is most of the time. You want to hear that they follow the written plan and bring the disagreement back to you, rather than quietly taking instructions from whoever asked last.
What do you need from us to do this job well?
Why ask it
Practical requests, a written care plan, a current medication list, a key and an alarm code, one named contact, indicate someone who intends to work properly. Nothing needed usually means they have not thought about the work in any detail.
Hiring and settling a caregiver
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
A workable hiring sequence
- 1Phone screen of fifteen minutes: hours, travel, pay expectation, and whether they can do the specific physical tasks involved. Most candidates are ruled out here.
- 2Interview at home, with the person needing care present for part of it. Watch how the candidate speaks to her rather than about her.
- 3Reference calls before any offer, to families rather than agencies where possible.
- 4A paid trial shift of four to six hours with a family member in the house.
- 5Written care plan, schedule, and pay terms agreed before the first solo shift.
- 6A review at the two-week mark, booked in advance so it does not feel like a complaint.
What belongs in the written care plan
- Medications with doses and times, and who orders repeat prescriptions.
- What she can do herself, what she needs help with, and what she must not do alone.
- Diet restrictions, allergies, and food she will actually eat.
- Emergency contacts in order, the GP or physician's number, and the standing instruction about when to call an ambulance without waiting.
- Mobility equipment and how it is used, including anything she has been told not to use unsupervised.
- Tasks explicitly outside the role, so that neither side is guessing.
What to watch during the trial shift
- Whether they address her directly, at her pace, rather than speaking over her to you.
- Whether they wait during slow tasks or take over to save time.
- Whether they wrote anything down without being asked.
- How they handle a refusal, which will almost certainly happen at some point in a six-hour shift.
- Whether the house looks the same at the end of the shift as they said it would.
Common problems
Warmth mistaken for competence
Kindness is necessary and it is not sufficient. Someone can be genuinely fond of your mother and still transfer her unsafely or lose track of a medication. Check the practical answers separately from how the conversation felt.
No cover arrangement
A single caregiver with no backup is one illness away from a crisis. Recruit a second, occasional carer early, even for a few hours a month, so that person is already known to the household.
Money left informal
Decide in advance who buys groceries, with whose card, and how receipts are recorded. Ambiguity about money is a frequent reason these arrangements end badly, and it is easily avoided.
Interviewing without the person receiving care
Where she is able to take part, she should. Her reaction to a candidate is information, and a carer chosen entirely over her head starts at a disadvantage that is hard to recover.