Hello, new to this site as I had a terrible experience on a different site. Does THS require disclosure of mental health issues by sitters? I had hired a sitter on a different site and discovered they had mental health issues after my house was trashed during a 4-day bender.
Welcome @EyeDoctor, I’m sorry to learn of your terrible experience through another site. No, THS does not require disclosure of mental health issues of any of its members, whether they are sitters or owners.
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Sitters are background checked for any criminal records via their ID which must be uploaded before creating a profile (edit: in the US only, and ID verified in other countries) but besides that there are no other checks. THS requirements to disclose mental health issues would for sure be an illegal infringement of privacy (not to mention sharing of medical information & implications for discrimination!)
It’s best to always have a video call before accepting a sitter, look at their reviews, have good communication and ask the right questions during a call that helps you understand whether you’re a good match. Hope that helps 
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Welcome @EyeDoctor
Sorry to hear of your experience with a sitter from another site- is it a site where you can leave a review of the sitter ?
THS is an advertising platform - hosts advertise their sit, sitters apply to sit and you can see their profile . Neither hosts nor sitters have to disclose their physical or mental health conditions to become THS members.
In fact , hosts don’t have any ID verification or background checks at all !
However there are hundreds of sitters on THS with multiple 5 star reviews . 20+ reviews for a sitter is not uncommon and there are plenty with 50 + and several with over 100+ positive reviews.
When you list your sit dates - sitters will apply and from these you can choose a sitter with a good track record. You can then arrange to have a video call with them and if they aren’t a match for you , you can decline them .
Sadly mental health problems could suddenly affect any one of us ( hosts and sitters ) at anytime.
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Welcome.
Yeahhh… no. I’d be off here PDQ if we started being required to provide mental health certification. I’ve seen a few listings where HOs have stated certain, um, “health-related” requirements for sitters, those are scroll-on-by type listings for me.
I’m sorry that happened to you, and one could argue that anyone who’d trash a house on a sit has some mental issues, but you could run afoul of a disrespectful sitter even with no “documented” mental health problems.
If you check applicants’ previous reviews you can get an idea of the ones previous HOs really liked. Also agree about the video call – see what kind of rapport you sense. That should help relieve your concerns a little.
Good luck; hope you find a great sitter.
(also re @Silversitters’ comment: when are HOs going to get some background checking??? I keep on about that, and have mentioned it in surveys from TH, but … 
)
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Sometimes I feel like I might NEED a mental health check after finishing some sits, does that count? 
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No, but don’t compare THS to other sites. Check out the Trustpilot link below, it gets 4.5 / 5 overall by almost 20000 people, and they are both home owners and sitters. Also, don’t look for your tick boxes being ticked, and the number of reviews, simply go with your gut and intuition and you can’t go wrong then, your gut is never wrong.
Only sitters in the US.
The main safety issue with THS is that owners cannot see whether a sitter had any missing reviews. A sitter may seem new when they already had a number of sits on THS where the owners were all reluctant to write a review.
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Thanks everyone.
I was scrolling through THS sitters and found her listed with 5 stars, so I’ll pass.
Anyone can get a mental issue at any point, paid or unpaid, host or sitter, you or me, a family member, friend, colleague or neighbor. One can’t get that guarantee - for others or for ourselves.
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It must have been terribly upsetting to experience that. How did she seem during the “getting to know each other” period? Did you have a video call before choosing here?
Any business that required disclosure of mental health issues would run afoul of all sorts of laws here in the US. I would guess in other countries that kind of personal information is also protected.
Sorry you had a bad experience, but what you’re asking for isn’t feasible. Plus info on a persons mental health wouldn’t protect you from having a bad sitter–they come in all forms beyond a persons mental health.
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Would you as a host be willing to divulge your medical history or go through checks? Because what if you break down or have an episode, or fall ill. Or say your existing medication stops working. That could affect a sitter’s plans and well-being as well. Or maybe you don’t look healthy to my untrained eye (or that of another sitter’s), maybe we could discriminate against you then?
I ask these questions to balance out perspectives — every sit should be considered from both sides.
For example, recently a sitter posted about a general practitioner (U.K. doctor) who turned out to have a disgusting home (pet waste and other filth inside their home). It sounded like a mental health case or such with the host.
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How did you discover that the sitter had mental health issues? Unless there was a medical diagnosis, how exactly do you know for a fact that the sitter had mental health issues? Accusing someone of having a mental health illness is serious and should not be taken lightly. I have worked with Soldiers who had mental health issues and they took their own lives. We never know what someone is going through. Maybe they went through a significant life event, death in the family, hopelessness, sadness, or experienced some type of trauma.
You mention that your home was trashed during a 4-day bender. Would it not be possible for the 4-day bender to be related to such causes?
You stated that the sitter had 5-star reviews, so maybe she was going through a tough time when she sat for you.
Everyone has good / bad days.
And if someone is having bad days, should they be labeled as having “mental health issues”?
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The criminal background check – is only for sitters in the US and won’t reveal mental health issues unless they led to arrests. There is an ID verification check for sitters registering in other countries.
Remember this is a membership. Sometimes sitters have run into homeowners who clearly had mental health issues. There is no disclosure on either side.
This is a risk here as it is with other sites – paid and unpaid. The best way to mitigate the risk would be to look for a sitter with lots of rave reviews on the site and to read their profiles carefully. Some sitters also include linkedin and Airbnb. Those sites can also give you more of an idea of how someone operates in the real world, but of course many people with substance abuse issues or mental health challenges are good at presenting to the world and masking issues.
One thing to think about is that you aren’t “hiring” sitters here. There is no money exchange. Sitters are sitting for lots of different reasons. They are individuals who “joined” by paying a membership fee, not employees who were vetted by an employer. The vetting on both sides of the sitter/homeowner equation comes from reviews. Some sitters may be hesitant to apply for your sit because you are new to the site so they have no reviews to go by. So in order to even attract any sitter, you’ll need to write a listing that is attractive. If you live in an area that people want to visit and there is nothing too unusual about the pet care duties, and you aren’t looking for a Christmas sitter, you will probably get a few applicants, but you don’t have to take any of them.
My advice would be to only chat with applicants with great reviews, and well put together profiles with no flags in their application. Ask open-ended “What would you do if…” type questions to get an idea of their thinking. If you confirm the person make sure you both have a way to contact each other outside of the THS email system. Keep in contact to make sure that no weird red flags come up later – like the person ghosting you, or coming up with execuses if they haven’t bought needed plane or train tickets, etc. It’s not great if a sit unravels after it is confirmed, but it’s better than if it goes through after it’s unravelled.
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I’m confused. Are you saying the person who sat for you through another site is a sitter here with 5 star reviews? If not, who is the person with 5 stars and why are you going to pass?