Understanding Home Care And How It Can Benefit You
Home care can include care for many different reasons, and while often we think of the elderly as needing care at home, there are many times that you may find home care the best fit for family members or yourself. Home care may be medical care, hospice care, or non-medical care and can vary significantly by the situation.
Medical Care
Many times after a surgery or accident that leaves you or a loved one recuperating at home, home care can include wound care, rehabilitation, and medication administration from a nurse or caregiver that comes to your home daily or several times a week. The type of provider that comes to help will depend on why you need them, and often if you are going to need home care, the hospital can help arrange it before you or your loved one is discharged.
When you need help at home, these caregivers can be wonderful and can often help with many aspects of the required care. Sometimes a nurse coming to change a dressing or administer medications can help with bathing and changing clothes. The nurses who work in the home care industry often offer more help than required but are happy to assist most of the time.
Hospice Care
When you have a loved one on home hospice care, the things they need will change as time goes on. Initially, it may only be medicines and health checks, but over time, you may need someone to come and help with moving your loved one or bathing them properly. Unfortunately, hospice leads to the loss of the family member, and the home care service that is coming in regularly may need to start coming more often to help manage pain or other situations that arise as the patient gets closer to the end.
Most home hospice care services will send several different people to help along the way. A CNA (certified nurse's assistant), a registered nurse, and eventually a doctor may all be part of the team that comes to the home, but other people may come to the house if needed. The goal is to make the person receiving service comfortable and ensure that all their needs are met in any way they need to.
In some cases, the home hospice care service will even provide some care and support for the family members who live in the home and are caring for their loved one. The service may provide a social worker to help make legal decisions or clergy if needed, so don't be afraid to ask for help from the service if you are unsure how to handle a situation.
Share
