One consistent caregiver
A baseline is what catches problems early.
Because the value is in someone who already knows what normal looks like.
A caregiver who visits the same home every week builds a baseline. They know how someone usually moves, eats and talks, which is exactly what makes them able to spot a change worth telling a family about. A different face each week can only follow a task list.
That consistency takes effort to schedule and is the first thing most agencies sacrifice. When we genuinely cannot send the usual person, we say so in advance rather than hoping nobody minds.
The other half is knowing where we stop. Non-medical means non-medical: no injections, no wound care, no giving out pills. Families under strain sometimes ask for a little more than that, and the right answer is a referral to a licensed home health agency rather than a favour nobody is qualified to do.
A baseline is what catches problems early.
What we notice gets passed on, quickly.
Clinical needs go to a licensed agency.
Free, at home, with the family there. No obligation.