Sherri Mamounis, 56, of Youngstown, gets paid to be the live-in caretaker for her twin sister, Sheryl Lasky, who has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Mamounis officially works 42 hours per week in her own home for about $300 per week under a state-approved program that allows family members or friends to be hired by a qualified agency to provide paid assistance to loved ones. She assists her twin with basic tasks such as bathing, dressing and eating as well as providing a safeguard against falls and other accidents.

“She doesn’t have to have some stranger come and do those things for her,” Mamounis said. “It makes life a lot easier.”

Donna Nelson, 48, of Warren, is paid to go to her 73-year-old mother Emma Taylor’s house for four to five hours per day seven days per week to help with routine tasks. Nelson said becoming her mother’s paid caretaker has freed her up from other work obligations that made it impossible for her to do what needs done. And her mother gets to stay in her own home instead of going into a residential facility.

“It works very well,” Nelson said. “She’s doing good.”

Nelson said she discovered the program through Youngstown-based Comfort Keepers when she began calling around for options when it became obvious about five years ago that her mother would need in-home care. Comfort Keepers is one of the qualified agencies that can hire family members for families in Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties.

“There are so many family members who are already providing care to family or loved ones, day in and day out, but who are unaware that they may qualify to provide the same care through our agency and receive compensation for their efforts,” Dave Mirkin, owner and CEO of Comfort Keepers, said.

Joe Voytek, director of operations for Comfort Keepers, said, “We receive numerous calls every day from individuals in need of care or who are trying to find resources for their loved ones. The majority of family caregivers aren’t even aware that they can become certified to provide paid assistance to their loved ones, which can help to offset some of the financial burden that families may experience due to the time and effort required to keep family safe in their homes.”

For people who can’t afford what can be steep prices for home care, money is available through Medicaid, senior levies and other funds to offset expenses. But laws and regulations allow that money to be used only to hire licensed providers.

“This is why we encourage family who may otherwise be providing the care for free as there may not be another avenue to get paid to care for their family,” Voytek said. “Good news is that since Medicaid or another program pays for the cost of services, there is no expense to the client or caregiver.”

A person may be a caregiver as long as he or she does not hold any form of power of attorney over that individual’s medical decisions or finances. The caregiver must also pass a background check, drug screen, and have a year or more experience in a direct care setting or be a state-tested nursing assistant, certified nursing assistant or a certified home health aide.

During the COVID-19 crisis, with caregivers in even shorter supply than normal, the state is loosening some of the restrictions to make it easier for family members to qualify.

“If the caregiver does not meet the state’s requirements of having the appropriate experience, Comfort Keepers will pay for them to become home health aide-certified through our own specialized training program,” Voytek said. “We put them through our self-paced Home Health Aide certification program.

“The program consists of a minimum of 60 hours of online / self-paced learning through CareStar Learning. Upon completion of the online portion of the HHA training, our nurses will then schedule the caregiver to come in for in-person training to get a gauge of their skills and areas of improvement. Then the caregivers are placed for a minimum of 16 hours in the home with a selected preceptor to train in the home.

“Upon completion, the caregiver will then review the assessment from our preceptors and tailor a skills competency review to be conducted with this caregiver so they can demonstrate many of the core skills needed for care before approving their HHA certification,” he said.

“The staff can start out at $8.75 if the individual has no prior experience, but once completing the HHA training, would jump to $9.25,” he said. “Everyone generally receive yearly pay increases.”

About half the family caregivers are hired part time and the other half full time, he said.

“In many cases, these caregivers have someone else in the household who works full-time also to supplement the cost they would otherwise have to take on or time off work to assist their family. I would say it’s a similar situation to paying for childcare or having mom / dad stay home with the kids a few days,” Voytek said.

Mirkin said, “From start to finish, we are here to go through the process of onboarding family members with our agency or directing them on how to qualify for programs in our area that may help cover the cost of in-home services.”

For her part, Mamounis also owns an insurance agency. After she became a caretaker for her sister, she moved the business into her home and has looked into selling the business.

“It’s a good supplement,” she said. “It’s a great program for people not wanting to put their loved one in a nursing home. This is the best program out there for people who want to keep their family home.”