How much does a home health care person get paid?

I am primary caregiver for my mother-in-law who has Alzheimer's Disease. The home health care agency that provides HHA's to work here while my husband & I get out to run errands is: $17.00/hour on weekdays and $18.00/hour on weekends--as long as we have them there for at least 4 hours at a time. The least amount of time is 2 hours, but we would get charged more.

I'm going to call them on Tuesday and find out what the difference is between a HHA and a CNA. Apparently, a HHA is not allowed to change briefs, just underwear, attends, Depends, anything panty like. A brief is like an adult diaper with tabs. ...but they're allowed to put TED hose on (which are tight and hard to get on).

** I wanted to correct this answer. You cannot become a Home Health Aid unless you are already a CNA, HHA is a bit more certification that allows you to work offsite, not under direct supervision of a LPN or RN. Although HHA's do work within a Nursing Care plan, they do not have direct supervision. (They are always indirectly supervised and have access to Nurses/Doctors within the care plan and are trained when to report to them for emergencies and it is also part of the normal care plan.)

A HHA can do everything a CNA can and a little more. They have more training for the unsupervised house environment which CNA's do not have. They can also do Peri-care, as you mentioned above, changing and treating incontinent patients... along with Catheter care. (Anything involved with Urine/Feces/Blood)

Things HHA's cannot do: IV Therapy, Medicine, wound care, injections, restraints... just to name a few.

Also for pay scale, Typically new HHA start off around 9.00$ per hour. After some experience they can make up towards 12-15$ depending on agency and type of patients they oversee. 9$-12$ is most common among most states. HHA has a high turn over because people are continuing education and do not stay as a HHA for long periods of time.