Live-in caretakers have become a popular — though increasingly expensive — choice
«Seeking a foreign woman, up to 27 years old, to care for an elderly woman. Salary, room and board provided.» On March 2, in one newspaper alone, over 30 entries appeared requesting a woman to care for an elderly person as live-in domestic help. At the same time, there were even more entries for people seeking employment as a live-in caretaker for the elderly. Women without any kind of specialized training combine their own need for employment with the needs of modern couples who want help with caring for their parents. «I didn’t want to put my father in a rest home,» said Mary Yiannikou. «I decided that it would be better for him to stay in his own home, with a live-in caretaker who could take care him when I was at work. But it really is difficult to find someone to take care of your loved one. One woman didn’t speak Greek at all – how could my poor father communicate with her? – and another woman didn’t care about anything but her vacation. Now I have a woman from the Ukraine who is nice and they get along. I don’t know what I’m going to do if she leaves.» But costs for live-in caretakers are rising, which means more families may again choose to take in their aged relatives at home.
