My 75 year old mother in law has dementia and it seems to be rapidly getting worse. I try to take her out and often visits her. Her daughter lives far away and is unable to help. She is always restless at night and has called the police twice. She often feels lonely and calls my husband in the middle of night for various issues. We are thinking of hiring a caregiver from Diamond Personnel in Toronto. I have no idea what the cost of this would be. Has anyone been through this? Please give any suggestions.
Assisted Living or a Group Home may be more cost-effective and perhaps provide better stimulation and activities.
It is very hard to get to the point where a loved one can no longer live alone. Above realize that this is Not Your Fault (or anybody's fault), it is "normal" part of the progression of the disease.
Eventually Dad asked for me to stop the over-night caregiver to help him save some money, so we tried that, even though it made me very stressful knowing he was home alone at night.
Late last month Dad decided it was time to leave his house and go into Independent/Assisted Living which would cost him around $5,000 a month for his 4 room apartment, and still have his Caregivers for 5 hours in the morning which was a lot cheaper. Eventually Dad can dismiss the Agency Caregivers and use the Aides available at the IL/AL facility which would save him even more money. He is now in a safe environment so much less worry :)
Now, if you get a Caregiver who isn't paid through an Agency, but paid by you or your Mom-in-law, she would need to get a "workman's comp" rider on her home insurance to cover any injury a caregiver might have being at her home. If hired and paid from an Agency, an Agency is usually licensed, bonded, insured, and have their own workman's comp for their employees.
I can certainly relate to your situation. My mother in law is 82 with multiple dimentias. My brother in laws family and mine started caring for her a year ago because of the same events the are happening to your mother in law. We made the mistake of taking her into our homes splitting the week. This past year was absolutely horrible. Both families have two small children so caring for her and trying to handle her increased symptoms was very hard on all of us. So your taking the right steps in looking for professional care, as her symptoms will get worse. I'm in FL but when we did get assistance we interviewed several homes which most are happy to come to the house and discuss your options. From then we compared notes, and then took tours of our top locations. I hope this helps. I only wish we could have gotten all her sons to agree together for her care. Your mother in law is very lucky to have you, and I'm sure would be so thankful for you thinking and planning the best care for her. Remember who she was before the disease when times get challenging. Best of luck.