At 84 and 86 years old, Margaret and O.T. Kidd of Canyon Country enjoy the comforts of home — plush twin recliners, reading the newspaper and a good television show. The retired phone company employees are still both fairly mobile, but household chores can be tiring and difficult to complete.

“Just making the bed, my back begins to hurt,” Margaret Kidd said.

That’s where Marilyn Ravasdy of Comfort Keepers Santa Clarita comes in. Five days a week, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Ravasdy helps out with preparing meals, answering phone calls, making sure medications are being properly taken, running errands and any other non-medical type of home care she can provide.

“We don’t have her to help on weekends anymore, so by the time Sunday rolls around, I can’t wait for Marilyn to get here,” Margaret Kidd said. “She takes care of the cat, so the cat waits for her, too.”

According to a MetLife Mature Market Institute study, nearly 25 percent of all United States households have at least one adult who has provided care for an elderly person in the last year. When families of elderly adults can’t act as caregivers because of financial or logistical constraints, they often hire in-home care providers.

“Nine times out of 10, it’s adult children seeking care for their parents. They’re part of the sandwich generation, which means they’re stuck in the middle of caring for children and a loved one. Basically, they’re taking care of two sides of a family. They’ll call me and say, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’” said Myles McNamara, certified senior advisor and owner of Comfort Keepers Santa Clarita. “Or they are children living out of state or far away that want to make sure mom and dad are safe.”

The latter fits the Kidd family’s scenario. When Margaret Kidd suffered a stroke in 2004, she convalesced in a rehabilitation hospital for 30 days before the insurance coverage ran out. Cindy Kidd, wife of the Kidds’ son John, became concerned about what would then happen to her mother-in-law, as living in Santa Paula precluded her from being able to provide hands-on help.

Cindy Kidd went online to research in-home care options and came across Comfort Keepers, a franchise operation with more than 550 offices in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Comfort Keepers offers services ranging from companionship and conversation to laundry and meal preparation; Personal care services can include bathing, grooming, and hygiene, as well as toilet and incontinence care.

She made an appointment to meet the Santa Clarita Valley office staff in person and was impressed with what she found. The Kidds have been clients ever since.

“From the owner down to the caregivers, there was a sense that my in-laws were like their extended family. Anything I need to talk to them about is handled discretely,” Cindy Kidd said. “They really care about the client getting their needs fulfilled.”

Since non-medical in-home care in California is an unlicensed industry with a vulnerable target market, McNamara, who’s vice president of the Senior Center Foundation — the fundraising arm of the Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center in Newhall — noted substandard, even illegal, practices are rampant.

“Anyone can hang a shingle and say, ‘We do in-home care.’ What’s missing is accountability. Our offices provide worker’s compensation insurance, we do background checks, we provide a case manager for each client,” McNamara said.

“If you ask an in-home care provider if their caregivers are independent contractors or W-2 employees and they tell you independent contractors, my suggestion is to run fast and far. You’re talking to someone running a business that’s illegal and improper by the State of California and the Internal Revenue Service. Do you want someone like that taking care of your mother?”

Hiring private caregivers, especially an employee that gets paid cash under the table rather than an official paycheck, is an even riskier prospect, according to McNamara.

“A lot of people get confused between non-medical and medical care. I tell people it’s personal, hands-on care that doesn’t require a medical license to do in the home. If an in-home, non-medical caregiver gives an insulin injection, that’s illegal and if something goes wrong, who’s responsible? You need a licensed medical worker to do that. I will not put a senior’s life into jeopardy. Our Comfort Keepers are not trained to do that,” he said.

Comfort Keepers care givers are required to attend a two-day training course given by the company and McNamara himself attends continuing education through The Society of Certified Senior Advisors, which issued the CSA Code of Professional Responsibility to provide ethical principles and rules for all persons who are certified by SCSA to use the CSA designation.

“Our curriculum covers the emotional, physical and spiritual issues faced by seniors. They put rubber bands on us to simulate arthritis and give us glasses that simulate having cataracts to show us as close as possible what it’s like to walk in the shoes of a senior,” McNamara said.

O.T. Kidd’s shoes often take him into the garden, where he still likes to putter around. A Comfort Keeper stays by his side, offering reassurance not just to Kidd, but to his daughter-in-law.

“The last thing we have to hope to ever make a decision about is putting them in a home away from their personal home. With in-home care, we don’t have to now,” Cindy Kidd said.

“This also gives them a chance to be around someone new in their life. That’s something valuable I wish for everyone as they get older.”

For more information on Comfort Keepers Santa Clarita, call (661) 287-4200 or visit www.comfortkeepers.com/office-205/santa-clarita-california.