If you enjoy caring for the elderly or already take care of an elderly family member at home, then you may wonder what steps you have to take to become an official paid caregiver of the elderly. Many states do allow caregivers of elderly family members to earn an income while helping their loved ones and other opportunities to care for the elderly in nursing homes and assisted living facilities are abundant. 

Read on to learn more about how to become a caregiver of an elderly loved one or a paid nursing home caregiver. 

How to Become a Caregiver of a Family Member

If you are already caring for an elderly family member in your spare time, then you may wonder if there is a way to obtain compensation for this time you spend providing care. 

Thankfully, there are ways that a family member or friend of an elderly person can obtain compensation for the time they spend caring for their loved one to help ease the financial burden of this unpaid time commitment. If your loved one is currently on Medicaid, they may be able to switch from their traditional Medicaid plan to a self-directed plan. Unlike a traditional Medicaid plan, a self-directed plan allows a Medicaid recipient to create their own home care plan that they feel suits their needs best. This plan can include paid care provided by a family member. 

If your elderly loved one is a war veteran enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration health care system, then they may instead be eligible for a veteran-directed care program. Like a self-directed Medicaid plan, this plan allows a recipient to create a care plan and budget that can include pay to a specific home care provider, such as a family member, that they feel meets their needs best. 

How to Become a Nursing Home Caregiver

While a variety of caregivers, such as RNs and LPNs, help care for patients in a nursing home, these facilities typically also employ many nurse's aides or assistants who spend much of their time at work caring for nursing home patients. While these caregivers are not permitted to hand out medications and perform other medical tasks, they help feed, dress, and care for the elderly in other ways. 

To become a nurse's aide in most states, a perform must complete a training program that consists of just 75 to 120 hours of instruction, although some states do require additional training hours. After completion of this instruction, you are then required to take a test created by the state and pass it to obtain the nurse's aid license that you need to begin applying for nursing home caregiver jobs in your area. 

If you enjoy caring for the elderly, then you can become a caregiver of the elderly that obtains compensation for the hours you spend on the job, whether you would like to provide care for a family member or work at a nursing home when you follow these tips.