Most families write a phone number on the refrigerator and assume it will work when the bathroom trip goes wrong at night. Confirm it first. A list of numbers only helps if a real person picks up at the hour your mother needs one, and if that person can do what you are counting on.
Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.
Check the line in this order
Start with the number you would call first. Ask whether the line is answered after dark, and if it is not, ask where the call goes and whether there is a second number. Ask the person who answers whether they can send someone to the house or only give advice over the phone. Those are different services, and you need to know which one you have. Ask what callers usually wait for a callback or a visit, and write down the answer you hear, not the one on the website. Ask whether they need your mother on the line or whether a family member can call for her. Finally, ask what they do not do. Some lines cannot lift a person from the floor, and questions about medicine belong with her doctor and her pharmacist. The local help list for St. Louis is a place to start, but confirm each line yourself before you rely on it.
What to write down
For each number, write the hours it is answered, the first name of the person who answered, the expected wait, whether a visit is possible at night, and whether a family member can call on her behalf. Mark the number as confirmed only after you have heard those answers yourself. Put the second number beside the first, and note which one you call if the first does not pick up. The point of the note is that anyone in the family can read it at 3am and know what to do without guessing.
If you want to see how we check the sources behind these steps, the sources page lists what we rely on.