Home care services range from highly skilled medical care, nursing and therapy to simple household task, such as activities of daily living (ADLs).
Arranging a program involves some searching and organizing and often requires you to use services from more than one source. To do this, you need to learn what services are offered by recommended agencies and individuals.
Particularly nursing and other medical services can be provided by home care or home health care agency. We will start by understanding what services this agencies provide.
MEDICAL SERVICES: agencies can provide a number of medical services, including skilled and basic nursing, rehabilitation therapies, and dietary services.
NURSING: With a physician overseeing the course of treatment, a home care agency can provide generic nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and licensed vocational. These highly skilled nurses plan and monitor health care, give injection and intravenous medication, and instruct you on self-administered medications, injections, and treatments. Aides, who work under the nurses' supervision, may monitor pulse, blood pressure, and temperature.
THERAPIES: Most agencies provide a physical therapist, respiratory therapist, speech therapist, or occupational therapist. These specialists give short-term assistance to people recovering from an illness or injury and ongoing therapy to those with permanent disabilities.
NUTRITION: Most agencies can arrange for someone to help plan a diet and show how to prepare foods that provide proper nutrition and meet special dietary needs. You may also be able to get help in shopping for and preparing meals of have prepared meal brought to your home.
MEDICAL AND SAFETY EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES: Agencies can provide medical equipment and supplies, such as hospital bed, wheelchair, walker, oxygen equipment and various home testing and monitoring equipment and supplies for incontinence and other conditions. You can buy or rent the equipment form the agency or from a medical equipment company with which the agency does business. Some home care agencies will also inspect your home for safety needs and arrange to install any necessary equipment, such as support railings, access ramps, of an emergency response system.
NONMEDICAL PERSONAL CARE: Most people who consider this option do not need skilled medical care as much as they need assistance with personal tasks that have become difficult because of frailty or other physical debility. This type of care is provided not by skilled medical personnel, but by Home Health aides. Aides are the people who spend the most time with the elder. Their tasks vary, depending on your needs, the rules of the agency and the willingness of the individual aide, but in general they include assistance with personal care, such as eating, dressing, and bathing, help with household chores, cooking, cleaning, shopping, and paying bills. For this kind of nonmedical assistance, home care is often better than residential care. Home care is provided one-on-one, whereas residential facilities have staff-to-resident ratios of one-to-ten or more. By choosing and monitoring a home care agency or individual home care providers, you may be better able to control the quality of care you receive. One of the great advantages of home care is that is permits an older person to maintain a feeling of independence and comfort in familiar surroundings. Also, you may be better able to control the care received and to avoid care that isn't necessary or desired. There could also be significant financial saving if the care you need is not too complicated. While residential care facilities average from $ 30,000 to $150,000 a year, this can average from 25% to 80% less, depending on what care is required. The things you provide yourself at home like food, drugs, and supplies, come without any nursing facility mark-up.
On the other hand, remaining at home also isolates some people from social activity and limits mental stimulation. Although friends and family often intend to provide lots of companionship, too many elders wind up spending their days in bed asleep or watching television. An organized elder residence on the other hand, offers both a community of people and a constant stream of activities.
RESPITE CARE: The primary responsibility for care and companionship often still rest with family members. Particularly if an elder requires extensive monitoring, it can become a substantial burden on family members to always stay around the house. Some agencies provide temporary respite care - a companion for the elder, whose presence allows a family member to leave the house and go to work, attend to other business, of simply have a break. Obviously, you can also make private arrangements for someone to fill this need.
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