A ten-minute assessment a caregiver takes on their phone. Six people living with dementia, twelve decisions the way they would make them on a real shift, and a report your supervisors can act on the same day. Not a quiz about dementia. A picture of what someone actually does at the door, at the shower, and after something goes wrong.
Every caregiver on your schedule has a way of handling a refusal, an accusation, a client heading for the door at four o'clock. You find out what it is when a family calls. Steady Check finds out first, in ten minutes, before the client does.
It is built on the Steadier Ground Method and written from fourteen years of running dementia-heavy home care. Every option a caregiver can choose is something a real caregiver has done. There are no trick answers and no back button.
Four skills, one instrument. Each leads three decisions, and the scoring is fixed and reviewed, not generated.
Does the caregiver catch their own frustration or discomfort before it decides what they do? Measured by whether they change something about themselves before responding, never by whether they pick the option that says "breathe."
Does the body get ruled out first? When a client says "stiff, slept wrong," does the caregiver take the story at face value or slow it down?
When the first approach fails, does the next one change, or repeat? Going with a client who has to leave instead of standing between them and the door.
Under accusation, refusal, or a raised hand, does the caregiver make space and hold ground, or push, flee, or argue?
Every scene has a second decision after a consequence, and one scene goes wrong no matter what. Recovery is the skill that matters most, because something always goes wrong.
A new pain, an outburst, a sexual comment. Four decisions where the right move includes telling the office the same day. The report says how many of the four the caregiver reported.
"In this sitting you handled new physical sign, repeated questions and grief, accusation, family talking over the client and sexual comments and touch the way the method teaches. The first thing to practice: refusal of care and needing to leave. Reported 4 of 4 changes and incidents. No safety flags."
Under that, the caregiver's report says what they did well, in the scene where they did it, and gives two things to practice written as the move to make next time. Then readiness for each of eight situation types: ready to practice on their own, ready with one thing to try, practice with feedback, or work with a supervisor first.
Every sentence describes a choice the caregiver made. Nothing predicts what they will do, and nothing names a diagnosis. It is a development tool, not a hiring or discipline record, and the caregiver always receives their own full report.
Caregivers sit at hire, after training, and at 90 days. The second sitting uses a different set of scenes, so it measures skill rather than memory. The difference between sittings is the proof your training worked, by name, and the weekly digest is how you see it without asking.
Steady Check is piloted in a licensed Illinois home care agency and keyed by a clinical review panel. Validation against supervisor ratings and client outcomes is ongoing; results are reported as observed choices, not predictions.
Steady Check measures one caregiver at a time. To take stock of the program as a whole first, the free team self-assessment is 18 questions a director answers in about ten minutes, scored by practice area.
Tell us about your organization and we will set up free sittings for ten of your caregivers. You get the reports, the takeaways, and the team view, with no commitment. If it shows you something you did not know, we will talk about a license for your office.