When your loved ones reach the golden age years you are now face with the facts that certain activities in their daily routine that they could not do by themselves. They may even suffer from dementia that is common to people their age or worst they have a medical condition that needs special attention of. Elderly home care service is one option that you could get for your elderly loved ones without moving them in their natural home.
In a home care program a caregiver or health aid worker is employed to give some help to an elderly, but still gives the elder his/her own space for individuality. The huge advantage in this program is having your own elderly relative taken care of your own home or in their own home environment. This brings a sense of security to them that they are being taken care of in a familiar environment.
For your information, an elderly home care involves more than just checking on a senior person. The caregiver is also there to do the following duties: simple housekeeping like picking the laundry, meal preparation, cleaning the house or making errands for the house; personal care involves hygiene activities like dressing and bathing; respite care or staying with the elderly while the family is out the house; financial management assisting on bills payment, and medical services like going to a doctor’s appointment, see to it that medicines are being taken and other special medical service that an elder/patient needs to go undergo.
However, if you are not so sure what kind of home care agency you are looking for to fit for your elderly loved ones needs here are types of home health program services:
- Home Health Service – certified by Medicare, which sends the bill to a third-party health insurance. Its main purpose is to give health care for the treatment or therapy of a patient. This mostly follows the patient’s’ medical treatment requirement set by his/her doctor. This may include Alzheimer’s and dementia care, physical therapy requirement and others.
- Non-Medical Home Care Service – does not need any strict requirement of a physician. Technically, these caregivers are not as skilled as medical nurses or workers, nonetheless, they are properly trained and certified to provide services such as personal hygiene services, light housekeeping services, outside care and others. These are paid privately or by any private insurance company. These caregivers are also under the provision of a resident doctor, nurse or health worker of the company that provides the service.
- Independent Services – From the term private these are caregivers, nurses, therapist and other health care providers that render their services independently. You can hire these private health workers personally or through a staffing service provider.
- Staffing Services – This agency program only serves as a hiring service provider of nurses, therapist, care givers and other health care workers. More or less it acts as a middle agent for an independent provider.