How can I get paid for caregiving?

If you love people and thought about becoming a home care aide, you may wonder about how you can get paid for caregiving. It’s a perfect fit for a kind, dedicated individual who really wants to help others. The good news is that you don’t have to have any experience in order to work with us at AmeriBest Home Care in Harrisburg, PA. We are hiring non-skilled home care employees, people like yourself to join our team.

How Does it Work?

Step one is filling out our online application. This opens the door for you potentially become part of a high-ranking home health agency in a relatively short period of time. In fact, you can get hired in one day by having five things ready to go:

  1. New Hire Paperwork. You can complete it in person or electronically. 
  2. Two current forms of ID (driver’s license, social security card, passport, birth certificate).
  3. Two years of proof of PA residency. If this is not possible, we will pay to obtain FBI fingerprinting.
  4. Completing the online clinical training class/test.
  5. Taking a 2 Step PPD or recent QuantiFERON test (provided at no cost) – offered on Tuesdays at our Corporate location or at any Vybe Location (voucher provided).

We have onboarding specialists that can help you along the way, too. 

What AmeriBest Offers

It all begins with knowledge. AmeriBest offers paid training, some of which can lead to expanding, specialized career options. We have classes including (but not limited to)

  • CPR Certification
  • Fall risks
  • Heart disease management
  • Hoyer Lift Training
  • Hygiene
  • Nutrition
  • Recognizing abuse
  • Transfer training

We appreciate our employees and want you to feel wholly ready to care for people in the community in need of assistance. 

Amazing Benefits Package

You will be hard-pressed to find a better benefits package than that which AmeriBest offers.

As one of the top five home care agencies in all of Pennsylvania, we know the value of continuity in our staff. You deserve the best, including:

  • 401K
  • Bereavement leave
  • Electronic timekeeping including a Daily Pay Option: You can transfer your earnings any time through an app that also tracks your hours.
  • Life Insurance policy for full-time workers $15,000
  • Medical, dental, and vision plans (basic covered at 100%)
  • Optional supplemental insurance (term life, short-term disability, etc.)
  • Paid holidays (7)
  • Personal time
  • Sick Days
  • Sign-on bonus
  • Time and a half for holidays
  • Vacation time

The Life and Times of Home Health Aids

Our caregivers report they love their jobs. There is so much satisfaction! Clients appreciate the companionship they receive. Their families appreciate getting much-needed breaks without having to worry about their loved one’s well-being. There are few other jobs where you will hear “thank you” so much as this one. 

There is a personal element to being an aid. You get to know an individual and their family far better than someone who stops in as they pass in the hospital. You become a bridge to the community, too. It doesn’t matter in which of our programs you work, the people you serve always maintain their dignity.

But there’s more! You have flexibility as a professional caregiver. Our agency works with your time constraints in making a schedule. 

Are you ready? Give our Harrisburg, PA office a call 717-545-2920, or email us at info@ameribest.org.

Caregiver burden and alcohol use

April is National Alcohol Awareness Month, during which organizations like AmeriBest Home Care in Harrisburg, PA endeavor to raise awareness about the growing number of people struggling with alcohol use. Among them, we see caregivers who have become overwhelmed, and really don’t know where to turn. Too little focus has been given to this situation, and it’s time to work together for solutions.

What Studies Show

Ongoing reviews of caregivers indicate that the emotional, social, and physical burdens of caregiving can overwhelm anyone. Attention from mental health professionals, social support groups, and home care agencies can help. No one expects to become an informal caregiver. Illness or injuries often occur out of the blue. 

5 Negative Impacts of Caregiving

So, suddenly you find yourself with heavy responsibilities that affect you in five main ways:

  1. Decreased quality of life
  2. Emotional overload
  3. Physical grind
  4. Social limitations
  5. Time constraints

To give more specific examples, there are

  • Financial management
  • Dealing with insurers
  • Exhaustion
  • Daily housekeeping
  • Errands and meals
  • Administration of medication
  • Moderating risk factors

Just to name a few. Bundled all together you have what’s called caregiver burden.

Having home health assistance typically results in longer lives for the infirmed. But it can turn into a nightmare when you’re going it alone. You can’t sleep, have headaches, get sick more often, etc. Alcohol becomes a tempting coping mechanism. 

Caregiving and Alcohol Abuse

When faced with the inability to provide the quality of care a loved one needs, people still often push themselves. They feel awkward about asking for help, guilty that they’re not doing enough, and the relationship between them and the infirmed becomes strained. Alcohol is readily available and easy to hide from the person for whom you care. 

Alcohol is certainly not an answer. The debilitating impact of alcohol puts loved ones at risk. In some instances, too much drinking leads to elder abuse. 

How Much is Too Much

American dietary guidelines state a man drinking more than four drinks daily, or 14 per week and women-three daily (7 per week) implies alcohol abuse. People on certain medications shouldn’t drink at all. If there are other alcoholics in the family, you may have a genetic predisposition to contend with as well.

Relief is Available

Did you know that you can have a friend or other family member caring for your loved one and get PAID for it? Government-funded programs include those for caregiving. There’s a beauty and great peace of mind in having someone help who is not a random stranger.

When a person joins the AmeriBest team in Harrisburg, PA, they become part of a network of skilled professionals dedicated to compassionate care. The chosen person receives all the training they need to keep individuals safe and secure in their homes. It becomes a very rewarding career path, and one where someone can take a more active role in their family, relieving a lot of the stress that can otherwise lead to alcohol abuse. 

If you would like more information on how you can get involved, contact us, email info@ameribest.org, or call our Harrisburg, PA office at 717-545-2920