In-Home Care, Home Health, Day Care, and Care Facilities

Caregiving at Home: A Guide to Community Resources

Published by Family Caregiver Alliance, 2017

Includes information on assessing needs, values and preferences, and holding a family meeting.  Also addresses community care options (friends, family, neighbors, religious community), California’s Caregiver Resource Centers, AAAs, senior centers, adult day care, respite care, meals, caregiver managers and more.

The Complete Guide to Home Care

Published by Care.com

This short webpage offers tips for hiring in-home care, including sections on evaluating your loved one's needs, how to vet an in-home caregiver, how to get started as an employer, and management of the new arrangement.

Getting Outside Help

Published by Parkinson’s Foundation

Knowing your options for bringing care into the home or screening care facilities before they are needed reduces caregiver stress. This page helps you think through whether getting outside help is right for your situation, where to find help, preparing paid caregivers, and if a care facility needed rather than in-home care.

Parkinson's Foundation also has a related one-hour webinar, Next Steps in Care: Seeking Outside Help (March 2021).

Hiring an Independent Caregiver: Everything You Need to Know

Published by Paying for Senior Care, April 2, 2024

This comprehensive article includes the definition of independent caregivers and household employees, steps to hire an independent caregiver, responsibilities as a new employer, ongoing management and payroll responsibilities, and the importance of paying an employee legally.

Hiring In-Home Help

Published by Family Caregiver Alliance, 2020

Includes info on deciding when assistance is needed, dealing with a loved one who doesn’t want outside help from a stranger, comparing agencies vs. private hire, interviewing, finding the right person, writing a job description and contract, communication with your new helper, a state of California caregiver background check, etc.

Interviewing and Training Worksheets

Published by the Parkinson's Foundation

Orienting a New Home Care Worker - This two-page worksheet identifies five mistakes that can create problems between you and new home care workers and offers a five-step process to train a worker to do a task and a checklist for providing orientation, layout and device help. 

Questions to Ask a Potential Paid Agency Caregiver - Checklist of questions you can ask to make sure an in-home care agency can meet your needs, as well as questions to make sure the agency and its employees are competent and have the proper training, licensing and insurance. 

Questions to Ask a Potential Paid Individual Caregiver - Two-page checklist of questions you can ask to make sure the individual can meet your needs, as well as questions to make sure the person is competent and has the proper training, licensing and insurance. 

The Pros and Cons of Hiring Private Caregivers

Published by Right at Home

This blog post discusses the pros, cons and practicalities of both hiring private caregivers and hiring caregivers through an agency.

Resistance to In-Home Care

By Stanford Parkinson's Community Outreach Program, June 2024

This four-minute video shares suggestions for spouses and adult child caregivers to gain acceptance of hired caregivers in the home.

Home Health Compare

Published by Medicare.gov

If you have doctor’s orders for home health care due to an illness or injury, use this online tool to find the best provider in your area. Enter your zip code or city, state or just your state. Filter the resulting list by quality of patient care ratings and patient survey summary ratings, or enter the name of a home health agency to see how it rates on a five-star scale.

Home Health vs. Home Care

By Stanford Parkinson's Community Outreach Program, June 2024

This three-minute video explains the difference between Home Health, which includes skilled health care services under Medicare, and Home Care, which has more limited coverage. 

Understanding Home Health vs. Home Care

By American Society on Aging and Home Instead, July 8, 2020

This one-hour webinar shares the breadth of care options for seniors and specifically discusses the differences between home health and home care, who qualifies for home health and how the two services can be complementary for aging adults to achieve their goal of returning home after a hospitalization and age in place.

Adult Day Programs

By Stanford Parkinson's Community Outreach Program, June 2024

This five-minute video outlines the differences between Adult Social Day Programs and Adult Day Health Programs and shares tips for how to get your family member to attend and how to find a day program near you.

National Adult Day Services Association Center Locator

Published by National Adult Day Services Association (NADSA) 

Use NADSA the locator to find affiliated adult day service centers in your area. 

Assisted Living Checklist

Published by Today's Caregiver

This extensive checklist helps assess assisted living communities, involving your loved one in the decision making process. 

Choosing an Assisted Living Residence: A Consumer's Guide

Published by American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living

This 18-page booklet outlines what activities and services assisted living facilities provide residents, resident's rights, how facility personnel is managed, paying for assisted living, tips for choosing a facility, a checklist of key questions to ask staff, a cost calculator (on paper), a checklist before signing the service contract, and some thoughts about moving day.

Finding the Right Assisted Living Facility

Published by Parkinson’s Foundation, 2020

This five-page booklet begins with a brief discussion about whether assisted living is the right option for your loved one with PD, the benefit of planning ahead, and how to create a list of facilities to tour and evaluate.  Subsequent pages provide questions to ask facilities during your tours with space to take notes, including considerations and questions to ask if your loved one has dementia.

Recommendations for Medical and Mental Health Care in Assisted Living: Resident and Family Checklist

By Sheryl Zimmerman, PhD, et.al. Published by Center for Excellence in Assisted Living, September 27, 2024

Families should be mindful that assisted living is not a healthcare setting. This three-page checklist is derived from a concensus statement published in JAMA Network Open, is intended to help families assess the suitability of assisted living facilities to address medical and mental health care needs needs of residents. 

Read the full article.

Respite Grants

By Stanford Parkinson's Community Outreach, June 2024

This four-minute video provides suggestions for how caregivers can arrange to take breaks from caregiving to rest and recharge. If finances are an issue, several organizations offer respite grants which can be used to pay for in-home caregivers and adult day programs. 

What to Know When Choosing an Assisted Living Facility

By Laura Petrecca, AARP.  Published by AARP, September 17, 2025

Advantages and disadvantages of assisted living, pro tips for evaluating a facility, steps for finding the best assisted living facility for you, and what to know before signing the contract. Included is a link to a printer-friendly checklist:  Assisted Living: What to Ask

Finding a Nursing Home: Don't Wait to Do the Research Until You Need One

By Deborah Schoch, August 1, 2022. Published by AARP

None of us want to be discharged from the hospital into a poor-quality nursing home, but many don't realize that you have a choice. Advice from experts is to become familiar with nursing homes in your area before you are even hospitalized. Dig into government reports and conduct your own inspection. This article tells you what to look out for when evaluating your options.

How to Find a Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program

Published by National Consumer Voice For Quality Long-Term Care

Use this online map tool to find a Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program (LTCOP) in your state or territory.  The LTCOP advocates for residents of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, board and care homes. LTCOPs provide information about how to find a facility and what to do to get quality care.  LTCOP staff is trained to resolve problems between residents/families and care facility administrators.

Nursing Home Red Flags You Should Watch Out For

By Payton Sy, RN.  Published by USNews, September 12, 2024 

Always choose a nursing home in person, after several conversations and more than one visit. Avoid facilities that have a high number of infections and deaths, long response times when assistance is requested, short staffing, high turnover among staff, limited socializing, complaints to state inspectors, unresponsive residents who may have been given antipsychotics to subdue them, unclean residential rooms, poor and limited food quality, disrespectful and evasive staff, no "lift" policy.

Your Guide to Choosing a Nursing Home or Other Long-Term Services and Supports

Published by Medicare.gov

This 48-page booklet explains how to find and compare nursing homes and other long-term services and supports, how to pay for nursing home care, your rights as a nursing home resident and alternatives to nursing home care. There is also a Nursing Home Checklist, and an online Nursing Home Compare tool. 

Caregiver Resource Guides by State

Published by AARP, September 4, 2025

Select your state (or, in some states, your city) to view a directory of many government and nonprofit resources accessible both in-person and online with tips to finding services and supports.

Eldercare Locator

Published by Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Aging

Connects you to services for older adults and their families. Call 1-800-677-1116 or use the online finder tool. Search by location for a list of local agencies and organizations that provide information and assistance for older adults and caregivers. Search by topic to find national information and resources on topics like adult day programs, food and nutrition, home repair and modification, housing options, in-home services, long term care, nursing home and LTC facilities and transportation.

Family Care Navigator

Published by Family Caregiver Alliance

This online finder tool helps families locate government programs, non-profit organizations and private groups, including those offering health and disability programs, legal resources, disease-specific organizations and more.

National Respite Locator

Published by ARCH (Access to Respite Care and Help)

Helps family caregivers and professionals find respite services in their state and local area. Features both “Search for Respite” and “Search for Respite Funding” online tools.  This database is not a complete list of all respite programs or possible funding resources.  Search results provide contact information for organizations providing short-term respite and long-term care facilities for vacation respite.

Aging Life Care Association

Formerly the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers, these geriatric care managers are certified professionals in eight areas: health and disability management, medical billing and insurance concerns, housing options, family communication, local resources, advocacy, elderlaw information and referrals, and medical crisis intervention.  Learn more about Aging Life Care and find a geriatric care manager near you.

CANHR (California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform)

A California nonprofit website with database information to find details on services, staffing and violations for nursing homes, find and evaluate residential care and assisted living facilities (RCFEs) or continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs).  How to find or lodge a complaint against a facility or CCRC, how to find an elder law attorney, information on MediCal and estate planning for long-term care, and more.