As people retire, various emerging diseases and situations force them to have different needs of care. People grow up and age through different life courses, personal and work life. The ends might turn out very differently for different people. To cater to the diverse needs of the elderly there are various in-home care services available.
What are in-home care services?
in-home care services include trained professional support that allows an elderly to live safely in their home. This service is mainly designed to assist an elderly age and live independently. It is of utmost benefit for elderly who are bedridden for a long period, going through chronic health issues, have a special need or disability or recovering from a medical setback. Professional caregivers including nurses, aides or therapists are available for long term or short term care inside the comfort of the elderly’s home depending on their needs. Home health care is generally prescribed by a doctor for patients who do not wish to stay at institutional care or are released from one. Care is provided through visits from specialized clinicians that might last up to an hour, on a short-term basis until individual setbacks and milestones are achieved.
Different types of home health care services that are available: The range of facilities and care that a patient receives during a home health care service is enormous. Depending on the type of patient’s needs, care can include nursing, specialised medical service, laboratory setup or any kind of other requirements. Such requirements are customisable to ensure that best facility care is provided.
Care home services may include:
Doctor care: In such services, the patient is usually taken care of by a particular doctor who keeps a track of the whole medical history of the patient. Here the patient remains in touch with a doctor who visits the patient at home to diagnose and treat the illness. He/she takes full charge of reviewing the home health care needs and regular follow-ups.
Nursing care: Nursing care is one of the most common in-home health care services for the elderly. In consultation with a doctor, an appointed nurse will plan and execute the plan of care. Nursing care may include tasks such as wound dressing, intravenous therapy, administering medication, ensuring a regular time table of food and nutrition, pain control, monitoring the overall health of the patient, ensuring transfer and fall prevention of bedridden patients and other health support. Care home health aides can help the patient with his or her basic personal needs such as getting out of bed, walking, bathing, and dressing.
Physical, occupational or speech therapy: The plan of care for some elderly might be completely different. They may need help relearning how to perform their daily life duties and even start from basic steps of walking to alphabet recognition. Certain illness or injury might cause a person to risk his/her basic life-sustaining activities. The elderly with such conditions require special therapy sessions to regain a functional level of living. A physical therapist might help regain muscle or joint strength. An occupational therapist might help patients with physical, social, developmental or emotional disabilities to relearn how to carry out daily routine activities like bathing, eating or personal grooming using different techniques. A speech therapist might be helpful for the elderly with impaired speech regain the ability to communicate at the earliest.
Medical social services: Medical social workers perform dynamic functions. They provide various services to patients including counselling, locating community resources to help patients extract benefit in their recovery process. Some social workers also act as the patient’s case manager in case the patient’s medical condition is very complex and requires the coordination of many services.
Homemaker or basic assistance care: While some patients require rigorous care and special vigilance, they also need assistance with basic chores. Homemakers provide services that include helping daily chores or tasks to maintain the household with preparing meals, doing laundries, grocery shopping, or other housekeeping items. Housemakers also assist with meal planning and preparation, light housekeeping, medication reminders and escorting to appointments.
Companionship: A group of elderly are fortunate enough to have not fallen into the strip of chronic diseases or illnesses as much as the others. They are in ardent need of a companion rather than medical assistance. Such elderly require someone to talk their hearts out. They might require a companion while they are at home for comfort and supervision. Some companions also perform household chores. A companion might engage the elderly in hobbies and activities they enjoy doing.
Volunteer care: Volunteers are a group of people belonging to a community organisation who are willing to provide comfort to the patient through companionship or emotional support. They may also assist the elderly in their paperwork, transportation or other personal care.
Nutritional support and other laboratory facilities at home: The elderly might be provided with a dietitian who can come to the home to provide dietary assessments and guidance to facilitate the treatment plan. For further convenience of the elderly and to save the hassles of going out for a medical test, certain laboratory tests, such as blood and urine tests, can be performed in the comfort of the patient’s home.
Transportation and home-delivered meals: Some companies provide transportation facilities for patients who require transportation to and from medical treatment. Apart from transportation, there are meals-on-wheels services that many communities and organisations offer for patients bound at home who are unable to cook for themselves. Depending on the needs and requirements, timely hot meals can be served.
Care home health services provide the highest quality of life at the place you love. It is completely dynamic and can be personalised according to your requirements to give you the best possible hassle-free experience right at your home. With the complete personalised home health services, you can be sure of receiving the best possible services to help elderly deal with their challenges of the later life with ease and comfort. A group of people are devoted to making the later life of the elderly filled with the experience of ease and relief, you are to pick the right kind of service. Not all services altogether provide the same benefits, you are to choose the best fit.
Adopting these in-home care services can be beneficial for both the patients as well as their families. The professionals fill in the void that family members or local caregivers sometimes lag. For a better experience of a comfortable old age, make wise choices of adopting in-home care services. Get professional help to ensure that all the required needs are adequately met.