Some seniors require help to live independently and carry out their normal day-to-day activities. These individuals, who are usually around the age of 65 and above, may benefit from one or more types of home care. As the name implies, home care is when a personal caregiver or medical professional visits the patient’s home to render health care services.
Home care can range from high specialized care such as a neurologist’s visit, to generalized care like companionship or housekeeping. Regardless of what you need to live alone comfortably, there is always a home care professional to render his or her assistance.
There are several types of home care. I have highlighted the available ones below.
Personal Care
Personal care is a care in which the caregiver helps the individuals handle various types of daily personal tasks due to one illness or the other. The tasks could include getting dressed, washing, visiting the toilet and shaving, etc.
Care workers use hoists and sliders to transport people with mobility issues. It is up to each person to decide what they want to include in their personal care, such as the support and product they prefer. All personal care is offered in a respectful and discreet way that upholds the personal dignity.
Companionship Care
Companionship care is perfect for older people who are isolated or at risk of becoming lonely. These individuals are still healthy enough to cater to themselves and don’t want to relocate to a care home or retirement facility. They just want some company so as to remain happy and mentally healthy.
Isolation is a big problem that affects several people in the U.S. Having someone to interact with and go on outing with helps and individual’s confidence, keeps their social skills fresh and helps prevent or ease depression.
Dementia Care
There are many individuals in the U.S living with dementia. This prevalent illness comes in diverse forms, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Pick’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. Well trained care workers help individuals suffering from dementia maintain a routine and social life, help with any personal or household duties and support them to live independently.
These care workers are trained on how to deal with difficult behavior and will get acquainted with each individual. By so doing, they know their personal struggles, including the best way to help them.
Dementia care is a very useful service for alcohol-induced dementia and early stage dementia, as individuals suffering from these conditions may not feel that a care home is ideal for them.
Live-in care
Live-in care is a type of home care that involves a worker coming to live in the home of an individual. This home care option is ideal for people who need constant daily care and companionship and have enough space in their home accommodate the care worker.
Live-in care is for specific type of people and it comes with many advantages and disadvantages. This type of home care allows you to remain in your home and have someone there to assist you in maintaining the house.
You can retain your lifestyle, social life, pets, including your standard of living, with some extra help as your needs are changing. The disadvantages of live-in care is that you may have less privacy than before. However, provided your care worker is respectful, you shouldn’t have a problem with that.
Nursing care
Care workers are taught to engage in several medical duties, like administering most medications and treating minor injuries. Some medical tasks, however, need nursing care.
This is usually done by a registered nurse, who will show up at your home to carry out the tasks that require nursing training and experience. The tasks could be dressing wounds, treating and managing skin issues like pressure sores or tears, administering injections and medications, Nurses can also provide care for surgical procedures, like tracheostomies, stomas, including catheters, that require specialist training.
