Anne,
In many cases, being a caretaker does not require any special classes and you can be trained on the job. For example, the woman who caretakes my mother has many homes and she trains her staff while an RN comes in a few times a month or more if she is needed and checks on the health of the people. There are many situations like this.

There is also a certificate one can get from taking a class for a certain length of time that certifies them for more responsibility for caring for those like my Mom. My own mother requires no care, really. She cooks her own food, can take care of herself completley and only needs rides to the stores she goes to and just watched to see if she is worsening mentally or if she is sick in any way. If she is ill the caretaker calls a doctor and makes an appointment for my mother. If she needs money the caretaker calls my mother's fiduciary and discusses the need for it. For this she is paid monthly. She does this for two women in her home, (the other woman is also fairly independent, ) and she collects money for her. Her other homes have more women or men living in them but she has employees that do the job in those homes for her and she checks in with them every day. It is quite lucrative for her. My mother does not yell or swear and does not give anyone any trouble, she just refuses serious medical care from time to time and then the caretaker must call the fiduciary and other people to take care of that. ( come to think of it, I don't raise my voice either!) The other woman in the home has a mother who visits her often and takes her out, like I take my mother out, so the caretaker pretty much just watches the home and the women. In the case of my mother she does not want to live with her children and be a burden. She also likes to have her freedom and this set up gives her a chance to be free but be watched. There is one person working in the home and he is paid but trained by the caretaker, and not specially trained for the work. I like him and he does a good job there in helping out, even if it is just answering a phone because my mother is afraid of phones but will talk on one if someone answers it! ( yes, wild, I know.) There are many positions like his.

Princess, the fiduciary that we use is a state employee and as we, her children, are named in the trust also, we recieved reports as to where money has gone four times a year as well as an accounting as to what assests are left in her trust as well as what new ones she has aquired. (For example my grandmother died two years ago and my mother was her sole heir so she received those monies too.) We can challange the fiduciary all we want and because she is a state employee, she works in the Pubic fiduciary's office. I would never trust my trust fund to any stranger. We put the money there while my mother is alive so she is watched over as a "protected person," regarding her money legally. If has worked out well. The money has been in this woman's hands for a long, long time and she has invested well and put up with my mother's strange needs such as "Get that T.V. out of here! They can watch me from it!" LOL You have to laugh at a certain point. I'm just having a bit of a hard time knowing that they must force the medical care upon my mother and it still makes me sad to see that have to happen to save her life. It's not often but it's time again!

Best,
Dancer9