Interested in making a difference in the life of an older adult?

Care.com is a leading online platform for finding and managing family care. You may be familiar with some of their caregiving opportunities, including childcare, pet care, and home care. But they also offer senior care through senior companionship caregivers.

As Erin Winsor, senior care advisor at Care.com, explains,

"The role of a senior companion caregiver is to provide practical support and companionship to seniors, giving them a sense of purpose and relief to family members. Senior companionship caregiving is the idea of providing one-on-one care in the home to older adults needing support.

Specifically, senior companionship caregiving is a type of care that is hands-off. So that means you're not assisting with medical tasks or nursing services.

And you're also not assisting with hands-on personal care, so not things like bathing, dressing, or toileting.

What companionship caregiving gets at is providing day-to-day hands-off support that could include general check-in, providing conversation, meal planning and shopping, grocery shopping, and meal prepping."

The tasks vary from person to person but might also include light housekeeping, errands, and transportation. Erin says the most important aspect is social engagement.

"Through all my time working with families, the reasons why families and older adults are seeking companionship are to combat social isolation and loneliness."

Why becoming a caregiver is a great opportunity

Erin says one reason becoming a senior caregiver is so appealing is the flexibility of the schedule.

"You get to choose what works for you. For some people, that's working 40 hours a week, nine to five. Others are looking to work 12 to two on Mondays, and that's it."

There's also flexibility around what services you want to offer. If there are things you're not interested in, not good at, or don't want to do, that is your prerogative. There are so many families out there looking desperately for care that there will inevitably be a family looking for what you're offering.

Another reason Erin says senior companionship is a great opportunity is the meaningfulness of this work.

"Providing support and care to someone looking for that companionship can make such a meaningful difference. A senior companion caregiver can be the difference between older adults staying at home rather than going to assisted living or a nursing home or moving in with a family member."

It's a caregiver's market right now because there aren't enough caregivers for the number of families looking for care, so it’s a great time to apply. To begin your search for a caregiver job, you can enroll by clicking "Apply to Jobs" on the Care.com homepage. Next, choose Individual or Small Business from the drop-down options and select the type of service you offer. You will be asked to enter your email address and create your account password.

You will then begin the account enrollment process. All caregivers are required to complete a background check - CareCheck, to join the platform. You will be asked to include relevant information and tell us about your experience in your service field. If you offer more than one service, after your enrollment is complete, you will be able to create additional profiles in each of the categories you are interested in.

One thing to keep in mind is that you’ll be working as an independent contractor using the platform to find positions with families looking for caregiving help. Employment  is established between the family and the caregiver, not Care.com.   The caregiver has the option to accept or refuse any contract proposed by the family. As an independent contractor, you’ll be responsible for keeping up with your taxes. For more information, check out the Care.com help center.

Care.com offers both basic and premium memberships:

With a Care.com caregiver Basic membership, you can:

• Set up your account for your profile to appear across multiple services (such as childcare and tutoring)
• Customize your public profile so families can find you
• Search for and apply for jobs
• Respond to premium members searching for a caregiver
• Take advantage of site resources and tools — such as hiring guides and rate calculators for nannies, babysitters, and more

A Premium subscription includes all the features of a Basic membership, plus the following:

• Rank higher and be featured in search results with a premium badge
• Get priority job alerts
• Send and receive messages with other families and other members
• Waived annual screening fee
• Access to LifeMart Discount Program

If this opportunity sounds interesting to you, check out Care.com's job listings