My caretaker really was needed mostly for the dogs and cats. It was useful for the first few days to have someone bring me hot beverages and food because I was using a walker. But really after the first 4-5 days I was able to take care of it all myself and I was back to using a cane except if I was doing my outside extremely pathetic walks. The first day I went outside -probably 3 days post surgery- it took me an hour to walk up a block and back down. It was an exciting day when I did around the block in under 30 min. If he is not supposed to bend over - get him a couple of cheap grabber things and a sock putter onner thingy - the sock thing was the one piece of extra equipment that was used all the time because I wear socks and could not put them on without help. Everyone on the hip forums goes a little crazy with happiness when they can put their socks on by themselves again. My dad is a giant fan of the grabber sticks. His wife had her hip replaced about 15 yrs ago and my dad ended up hoarding her grabber sticks -he loves to pick things up with them -I think they have a couple in every room now