We found a caregiver for my dad during the day, but now we’re looking for one in the evening. My sister found a man she thinks is good, but it’s been awhile since he’s worked in the field for awhile so she would like to check him out. This is in Texas. I found the “ConvictionNameSearch” site so we can make sure he doesn’t have a criminal history in the state. But is there more we should do? We feel clueless. If you’ve used a specific company, such as LexisNexis, could you send me a PM? Is there a governmental agency we can contact? We want to be safe but we don’t want to waste our dad’s money, either.
You can just use google to find the sex offender registry in every state where this gentleman has lived, and then run his name through it. There are paid services (again, google background checking) which for a fee will verify that the social security number he is using actually belongs to him, there are no outstanding arrest warrants, etc. None of the publicly accessible databases are updated in real time, so they are mostly accurate but not always current.
I think calling his references- even from 10 years ago- is valuable. I remember the names and personal details of every single person we employed to take care of my parents even though for some of them it was over 20 years ago. There were the standouts- well trained, patient, kind, professional-- and then there were the crazies-- always late, leaving in the middle of the shift for a “personal emergency” very frequently, car trouble constantly, needing an advance on next week’s pay and then another advance and then another…
Even an old reference is valuable. One of my dad’s nurses-- an exceptional human being in every possible way-- I’d be honored to recommend him even though I haven’t seen him since 2002…
Thank you! After I posted, my sister texted me that the only reference he could come up with was somebody for whom he had mounted a couple of TVs on the wall. Really?!? We agreed he didn’t seem like a good candidate. So he’s off the list.
Then a woman my sister had contacted returned her call and I think she’s going to work out well. It turns out she lives very near my sister, and remembers my nephew who passed away! My sister said that a few days before his death in 2015, she ran into the woman’s grandmother who wanted an update about my nephew. My sister said that was probably the last time she talked about her son with an acquaintance in the present tense.