Most people who hire a companion for a widowed father are not really hiring someone to do chores. They are hiring someone to be there when you cannot, and to take some of the load off you without taking over his house. That makes the written job description the most important page you will sign. Read it before you read the price, and read it slowly.
Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.
Ask for the job in writing
Ask for a written job description that lists each task: companionship, meals he helps prepare, errands, driving him to appointments if that is part of it, light tidying of the kitchen, and the times the companion is in the house. A vague line like help around the house leaves room for both of you to disagree later. Ask who decides when a task changes and how that change is written down.
Medicine: reminders and pickups only
A non-medical companion may remind him when a dose is due and may pick up a prescription at the pharmacy as an errand. Anything beyond that stays with the family, his doctor, and his pharmacist. Opening bottles, deciding what he takes, filling a pill organizer, and keeping the medication list are all family and clinical work. Put that line in writing, and ask the agency or the companion to repeat it back to you in their own words. If their answer sounds like more than reminders and pickups, stop and ask again before you sign.
Check who covers the gaps
Ask what happens when the companion is sick, on vacation, or has an emergency. Ask for the name of a backup person and how quickly that person will arrive. Ask whether the agency will call you before a replacement comes, so you are not finding out at the door. If the answer is that the arrangement simply stops on those days, you need to know that before you sign.
Ask about screening and insurance
Ask what background checks the agency runs and when they run them. Ask whether the agency carries insurance that covers its workers and what the policy covers. Ask to see the certificate, not just be told it exists. Have someone you trust read the agreement before you sign it, because the details of liability and coverage are easy to skim past. This is a question to put to the agency, not something a website can answer for you.
Compare two options on the same paper
If you are looking at more than one agency or a private companion, ask each one for the same written list: the job description, the hours, the backup plan, the screening and insurance details, and the notice needed to end the arrangement. Put the two lists side by side on the kitchen table and mark where they differ. The difference is often in the small lines, such as how much notice either side must give.
Ask how changes get logged
Ask how the companion writes down what happened during each visit. A simple notebook on the counter works, as long as it is kept consistently. Ask who reads it, and how often. If he has a change in mood, appetite, or sleep, ask how the companion would tell you the same day. You do not need a long report. You need a line in the notebook and a phone call when something is off.
If you want to see how we check the things we print before we print them, the How We Write page explains our process.
What to do tonight
Write down the three tasks you most want help with and the hours you need covered. Then write the one line you will not give up, which is that medicine stays with the family, his doctor, and his pharmacist. Bring both lists to the first conversation with any agency, and do not sign anything until the written job matches what you were told out loud.