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Concerning the excellent suggestions concerning care givers I can add a few others from experience. My father had suffered a debilitating stroke and my mother suffered from dementia. We had to have live in help. 1. Going through an "agency" is no guarantee. We had drunks, no-shows, etc. 2. Take anything of ANY monetary or sentimental value out of the house. In the first day my parents were "relieved" of $500 cash and my mother's diamond wristwatch which had been a Christmas present from my father 25 years earlier. 3. Any private papers, financial records etc. need to put in a safe place. Like a safety deposit box at the bank. We had things that couldn't possibly been of value/important to anyone else disappear (my mother's college yearbook). 4. In other words if it is of any value at all whether, monetary, sentimental, historical, irreplaceable, private or a financial record you may need later (tax returns/substantiating paperwork), put it somewhere other than your house. A bank is best. Sorry to sound so negative. We eventually found three wonderful women who rotated the "duty" but when I say we kissed a lot of frogs first I mean it was a long rocky road for a while. I'm only writing this so you can protect yourselves from this kind of thing. After all, we did eventually find three women who were "gold." One woman from an agency (the agencies claim they are all bonded, insured, background-checked etc. DON'T BELIEVE IT) would climb out of the bedroom window at night to see her boyfriend and would climb back in in the morning. She also drank gin but you couldn't smell it on her breath. Joan Cutchins [log in to unmask]