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What people usually want at that point is someone reliable at home, soon, and the confidence that the person is trustworthy. Maids Hands For You lets you see exactly who you're hiring. You take a subscription, read through carer and nurse profiles in your parent's district, and call them yourself. You judge the person, not an agency's description of her.
There's no commission on the hire. We're based in Aluva, Ernakulam, and profiles cover all 14 Kerala districts.
Care or nursing: what does your parent actually need
Getting this wrong is expensive in both directions, so it's worth thinking about before you start calling.
A trained carer suits a parent who's largely independent but shouldn't be alone. She helps with bathing and dressing, cooks and feeds, walks with them, keeps them company, reminds them about medication, and notices when something's off. For most ageing parents, this is the right answer and it costs considerably less than nursing.
A qualified nurse is needed when there's a medical condition to manage: blood pressure and sugar that need monitoring and recording, wounds, a catheter, a feeding tube, or medication that needs administering rather than reminding. If your parent has come home from hospital or has a condition under active treatment, you need home nursing rather than a carer.
If your parent can no longer move on their own, that's bedridden patient care, which is a different skill again.
Be honest about which situation you're in. Families often describe their parent as more capable than they are, because saying it out loud is hard.
Arranging care for parents in Kerala from abroad
If you're in Dubai, Doha, Muscat or further away and your parents are in Kerala on their own, you already know the hardest part. You can't be there to meet anyone, you're relying on a relative or a neighbour to vet a stranger, and the agency you called wants payment before you've seen a face.
This is the situation the platform handles best, mostly by accident of how it's built.
You take the subscription from wherever you are. You read the profiles yourself at whatever hour suits your shift. You call the carer directly on her phone and talk to her in Malayalam for as long as you need to. You can have your parent, or a sibling, or a neighbour on the same call. And when you've decided, you're agreeing the salary with her, not wiring a commission to an office you've never visited.
Families abroad usually want two more things, so plan for them. Agree who is the local point of contact for anything urgent, because you're in another time zone. And agree how the salary gets paid each month, since you're not there to hand it over.
What an elderly carer does
The work shapes itself around the person, but in most Kerala homes it comes down to:
- Help with bathing, dressing and personal hygiene
- Cooking and helping with meals, including food suited to their condition
- Helping them move safely, get up, walk, use the bathroom
- Reminding about medication on schedule
- Company through the day, conversation, sitting with them
- Light housekeeping around their room
- Watching for changes and telling the family
What a carer doesn't do is make medical decisions, change treatment, or handle clinical procedures. If any of that is needed, you want a nurse.
Day, night or live-in
Day care covers the hours the family is out at work and is enough where someone is home in the evening.
Night care matters more than families expect. Elderly people are often restless at night, need the bathroom repeatedly, or are unsteady in the dark, which is when falls happen. A family that can't sleep stops coping quickly. More on night care.
Live-in means she stays at the house with her own room and meals. For a parent living alone, this is usually the arrangement that actually solves the problem, particularly where the children are abroad.
What elderly care costs in Kerala
The subscription is what you pay us for access to the profiles.
Her salary is paid directly to her and we take no share. As a guide for 2026:
| Arrangement | Trained carer | Qualified nurse |
|---|---|---|
| Day duty | ₹12,000 to ₹18,000 / month | ₹18,000 to ₹25,000 / month |
| Night duty | ₹15,000 to ₹20,000 / month | ₹20,000 to ₹28,000 / month |
| Live-in | ₹18,000 to ₹25,000 / month | ₹25,000 to ₹35,000 / month |
Kochi, Ernakulam and Trivandrum sit at the top of these ranges. Live-in arrangements also assume room and food.
If your parent has dementia
Worth being straight about this, because most agency pages list dementia care and leave it there.
Early-stage memory loss is manageable at home with a carer who understands it: keeping routines fixed, not arguing with confusion, watching the door, managing medication carefully. Many experienced carers in Kerala have done this before and it's worth asking directly on the call whether she has.
As it advances, the demands change. Night wandering, aggression, not recognising family, incontinence. That needs either two people in shifts or a carer specifically experienced in it, and sometimes it needs more than home care can give. A carer who says she can handle any stage of dementia on her own, indefinitely, is telling you what you want to hear.
Ask about her actual experience with dementia patients before you hire, and be prepared to revisit the arrangement as things change.
Elderly care across Kerala
Frequently asked questions
How much does elderly care at home cost in Kerala?
Roughly ₹12,000 to ₹18,000 a month for a trained carer on day duty and ₹18,000 to ₹25,000 for live-in, paid directly to her. A qualified nurse costs more. Kochi and Trivandrum run at the higher end.
What's the difference between elderly care and home nursing?
A carer handles personal care, meals, mobility and company. A nurse handles clinical work: monitoring, medication, wounds, catheters. Most ageing parents need a carer. A parent under active treatment needs a nurse.
I'm abroad. Can I arrange this for my parents in Kerala?
Yes, and it's one of the most common things families use the platform for. You read the profiles and call the carer yourself from wherever you are, so you're not depending on an agency to choose on your behalf.
Will the carer stay overnight?
If you hire for live-in or night duty, yes. Filter the profiles for it, because not every carer takes overnight work.
What if my parent has dementia?
Manageable at home in the earlier stages with a carer experienced in it, which is worth asking about specifically. As it advances it usually needs two people in shifts, and eventually it may need more than home care can offer.
Can I speak to the carer before she starts?
Yes. Her contact comes with the subscription, so you call her, ask what you need to, and decide for yourself.
