Set Up a Paid Family Caregiver Arrangement Legally

  1. Document the care recipient's daily care needs
    1 hour

    Start from what the care recipient actually needs, not from what you hope to pay for. Make two lists: ADLs (activities of daily living — bathing, dressing, toileting, feeding, moving from bed to chair) and IADLs (instrumental tasks — meals, medication, transport, housekeeping, errands, money management). The weekly-hours figure you produce here is what every later phase prices, so record who performs each task and whether that help is paid or unpaid.

    1. Note the care recipient's conditions and diagnoses at the top of the page.
    2. Work through each ADL and IADL and mark who helps today (recipient alone, family, paid helper) and how often.
    3. Estimate minutes per task per day — a bath given with help takes about 30 minutes, not 5.
    4. Total the weekly minutes per task, convert to hours, and add them up into one weekly-hours figure.
    5. Keep the inventory to one page: task, helper, minutes per day, days per week.