The scope list is the page that decides what an aide does once the visit starts. Most disagreements between a family and an agency begin with a task that everyone assumed and nobody wrote down, so read the list line by line before you sign.

Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.

Turn each line into a task

Take every item and rewrite it as a plain action with a place in the home and an end point. 'Light housekeeping' is not a task. 'Wipe the kitchen counters and the sink after each meal, and empty the kitchen trash into the outside bin' is. Where the agency's wording stays vague, ask for the sentence they would put in the client file, and keep the answer.

Find the limits

Every list has edges, and the edges matter as much as the lines. Ask the agency to name what sits outside the list. Typical limits include moving heavy furniture, ladder work, tasks outside the home unless they are listed, and chores for other people living in the house. Ask who decides when a request crosses a limit, and how long the answer takes.

Test the list against a real week

Write the household's ordinary week in one column and the agency's list in another. Mark each need that has no matching line, each task that depends on the client being home, and each day with no task at all. A missing line is easier to fix before the first visit than after the third, when the aide is already working around it.

Ask how a change gets written

A scope list changes over time. Ask how a new task is added, who signs off on it, how the family receives the updated copy, and whether the aide sees it before the next visit. The family should keep the current version somewhere both the family and the office can reach.

Questions to bring to the office

  • Can you send the full task list in writing before we sign?
  • What sits outside the list, and who decides when a request falls outside it?
  • How is a new task added, and how quickly does the family get the updated copy?
  • Which tasks need the client to be home, and which can happen while the client is out?
  • Who on the office side answers when the aide is unsure what a line means?

For how this desk weighs agencies on the front page, see the methodology page. The list you bring to the office is the family's own document, and the family keeps the final say over what it says.