Most questions about support at home get asked on a calm afternoon. The questions that matter most tend to come up at dusk on the day the forecast turns, or at two in the morning when the power is out and the phone is the only light in the kitchen.

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 what the office does before the weather arrives

Ask whether the office has a written plan for severe weather, and ask to read it. Find out who decides when a visit is cancelled, who calls the family, and how early that call comes. Ask whether the office still sends a helper when the roads are poor, and if so, what the helper should do when they cannot reach the house.

Ask about power and heat

Ask what the office expects its helpers to do when the power goes out during a visit, and what they should do if the home gets too hot or too cold. Ask how the helper reaches the office and the family when the phone network is slow. Ask how the family will be told if a visit cannot happen.

Ask what happens when a visit cannot happen

Ask whether the office keeps a list of backup helpers, how quickly it can reach them, and whether a helper can cover a visit on short notice. Ask whether the office will tell the family the plan before a visit is missed, not after.

Ask about the nights

Many of the hardest moments come after dark. Ask what the helper is responsible for at the end of a visit, what they check before leaving, and what the office expects the family to do if the person you care for is up in the night. The page on evenings and nights at home covers that part of the day in more detail.

Evenings and Nights at Home

Write the answers down

Take notes during the call, and ask the office to put its weather and outage plan in writing. Keep that page with the house sheet, and read it again before the first hard weather of the year.

Keep the emergency number handy

Write the local emergency number for your area on the house sheet and beside the phone. If the person you care for is in danger, call that number first, then the family, then the office. Support at home is not an emergency service, and a good office will say so plainly.

Nothing on this page is medical advice. No support at home agency listed here provides medical care, and health questions go to the family's doctor.