My 83 year old mom is currently in a SNF after a 3-month stint in rehab after a stroke. She is utterly miserable and desperately wants to go home. Her apartment is completely wheelchair accessible. The only issue is that she currently needs two people to transfer her from bed to wheelchair. She needs 24/7 care and obviously I can't hire two aides to be there at the same time to do the transfers. I know that there are Hoyer lifts that can be operated by one person. That seems to be the only way she can go home. Does anyone have any experience with a home aide who can operate one of these alone?
You will not get a professional home care aide to do it solo, and it would be unfair even to ask; but as Pam points out you can be No. 2 on the team with approved training (which shouldn't take more than a couple of sessions). I was given demonstrations by the PTs at rehab before my mother came home: you could do worse than ask at your mother's ltc facility, they can only say no.
Other important differences between facility and home operation:
Flooring. These lifts are designed to be moved around on smooth surfaces like lino or vinyl. We had carpet, though fortunately with a very short pile; but it didn't make life any easier.
Space. Facilities are laid out to purpose-built designs. You will probably need to rearrange your mother's environment considerably to allow adequate room for manoeuvre.
Help. What if it goes wrong? Who can you call if there is a problem, and how long would it take for anyone to get to you?
Spares. You will need several slings *of the right size* because they need to be thoroughly laundered, dried and aired and you can't put them in the dryer.
Co-operation of the patient. Facility staff are good at getting the job done without - how can I put this - necessarily paying too much attention to consent every single time. "It's time to go to the bathroom Mrs X" and in they charge and get it done and the patient doesn't really have time to think about arguing, let alone get in a tizzy. That's not to say that if the patient did say "unhand me, how dare you" they would persist in transferring her - but it sort of doesn't come up for discussion. Are you going to be able to take the whole thing in your stride in that way? Would your mother have the same confidence in you, and feel safe?
Have you been in touch with the sw at mom's apartment complex?
As for having an Aide to this work, it would be best to hire someone who has a lot of experience in using a Hoyer. You don't want someone experimenting for the first time on your Mom.