What level of home care does your loved one need?

How SeniorsAssistants scores your answers

The quiz weighs eight evidence-based factors that geriatric care managers, hospital discharge planners, and home care intake teams use every day. Each answer scores between 0 and 3 points; higher totals indicate a higher level of care.

1. Mobility

Fall risk is the single strongest predictor of hospital readmission for adults over 65. The quiz differentiates between fully independent ambulation, use of a cane or walker with supervision, and the need for a transfer belt or two-person help. Higher mobility limitations shift the recommendation toward personal care or 24-hour rotating shifts.

2. Memory and cognition

Short-term memory lapses, disorientation, and diagnosed dementia each carry a different weight. Any documented Alzheimer's, Lewy body, or vascular dementia diagnosis moves the recommendation toward memory-trained caregivers rather than general personal-care aides. Sundowning behavior — worsening confusion in late afternoon — often pushes the recommendation to 24-hour rotating shifts.

3. Medication management

The number of daily medications and the person's ability to self-administer on schedule is a strong scoring factor. Complex regimens (five or more medications, insulin, blood thinners requiring frequent monitoring) require aide-level competency and sometimes overlap with clinical home health nursing visits from a Medicare-covered agency.

4. Home safety and recent incidents

Any fall in the past six months, kitchen fires or scorched pots, or a wandering incident scores high on the safety axis. Recurring safety incidents almost always tip the recommendation from part-time care to full-day or 24-hour supervision, because the fundamental issue — being alone at a moment when help is needed — cannot be solved with fewer hours.

5. Activities of daily living (ADLs)

Bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, eating, and continence care are the six classic ADLs. The quiz counts how many the person needs help with. One or two typically fits a companion or light personal-care model; three or four suggests full personal care; five or six frequently requires live-in or 24-hour coverage.

6. Family caregiver capacity

Every private-pay recommendation depends on how many hours the family can realistically provide. A spouse still in the home who is capable and healthy dramatically changes the math from a solo-living scenario. Adult children who live within 30 minutes can supplement two-shift 24-hour care in a way that adult children in another state cannot. The quiz factors this into the final recommendation.

7. Overnight risk

Two questions in the quiz surface overnight risk: bathroom safety after dark and any history of nighttime wandering or agitation. When the person cannot safely go through the night alone, the recommendation moves to overnight coverage as a minimum and often to 24-hour rotating shifts.

8. Urgency

Immediate hospital-discharge situations, active safety crises, and cases where the primary family caregiver is at the point of collapse require different pacing than long-range planning. The quiz surfaces urgency at the end because the answers to the first seven questions inform what "urgent" actually means for your family.

For a precise cost estimate once you know the recommended care type, use our home care cost calculator. To understand how to pay for the recommendation, see our paying for care guide.