The 5 Most Important Elements of Home Care for Seniors

Advocating a positive vision of aging, elderhood advocates encourage us to turn a blind eye to the foolish notions, so many of our peers hold that portray the aging process as a frightening, panic-inducing, gradual fade away into a kind of subhuman non-existence.

Rather, we are encouraged to think independently and realize aging for what it really is: a natural part of life that should be readily accepted, attended to, and integrated with the many other elements that ultimately construct and define our lives.

After all, age, disease, and disability, as well as long-term care do not define our existence as people; they are but just one aspect of life.

Through contemplative and affirmative thought, eschewing pessimism and choosing optimism and focusing on the positive, you are perfectly poised toward implementing a personal care plan for your life that is inclusive of the major pillars necessary to create a happy, healthy, sustainable, and functioning existence.

Among the major pillars of creating a sustainable healthy life is ensuring that we, as older people, patients, and even family members, are to have our health conditions, ailments, and chronic diseases attended to via high-quality levels of assistive long-term care and that the various tasks we may require assistance in are tended to by professionals who treat us with the utmost care, compassion, and respect.

Whether it is via personal care, primary care, nursing home care, in-home care or non-medical home care, a patient-centered medical home care, part of a retirement community, or any other form of elderly care we need to make sure that we are cared for properly and appropriately, and our health and well-being is respected and upheld.

Home health care assistance services fulfill most all our health, emotional, physical, and activities of daily living (ADL) needs in a professional manner that enables you to concentrate on being a lively, confident senior dynamo who is full of zest and zeal for life and is excited for the new experiences to be found in each passing day.

To learn more about the most important elements of home health care services and how they can help you live a better life, read on below.

Experience

The home health care assistance agency that you employ should provide you with the unwavering high-quality care that is on par with the care that you would receive in a skilled nursing facility.

Any of the tasks, chores, ADLs, bathing, grooming, medical and financial management issues you may have trouble attending to on your own should be readily assisted by a home health aide experienced in providing this kind of basic assistive care in an effective, empathetic, and kind manner.

Your experience should always be a patient-centered one that takes into account your unique goals and preferences.

To do: Before choosing a home health care agency to help you with your in-home needs, ensure that the health care aides the agency will be sending to you are trained, licensed, credentialed, and have the depth and breadth of experience required to meet your needs.

If possible set up an appointment to interview the agency as well as the professional that they intend to match you with.

Come prepared with your most pressing concerns and a variety of questions that cover every aspect of those concerns.

So, if possible, bring family and loved ones with you along to the interview to gain their perspective on the quality of the business.

Empathy

Among the most common complaints to Medicaid, Medicare, and individual home health care agencies are the unprofessional attitudes of home health care aides who behave in a coldly unsympathetic fashion.

Respect, empathy, and compassion are cornerstones of assistive healthcare; those who are employed in the field necessarily have to be kind-hearted individuals who are patient, understanding, and truly desire to help seniors live happier and healthier lives.

Far too often, home health aides will go into the line of work drawn by the appeal of money and the assumption that the overall level of care will be easy.

Many are dismayed to find out home health care is a hands-on process that requires the utmost empathy and patience.

Complaints from seniors often cite issues with aides snapping at them, sighing, muttering sarcastically under their breath, and rolling their eyes in an unacceptable display of outright disrespect.

You deserve far better than lackluster care. If your home health care aide is lacking, don’t let their unprofessionalism negatively impact the quality and vitality of your good life.

Immediately file a report with the necessary agencies and demand a replacement that is high-caliber and best-suited for your needs.

Professionalism

The person coming into your home is a home health nursing care professional providing you with the assistance and care you need to live a happy and healthy life.

This individual should be displaying unwavering professionalism at all times while employed by you.

Professionalism can mean a lot of things but most importantly for seniors and their in-home health care needs, professionalism means:

• Showing up on the days scheduled to work
• Showing up promptly at the time scheduled to work
• Arriving with the necessary paperwork, devices, medical equipment, and accessories needed for your individual care
• Arriving able to immediately begin tending to your needs
• Not taking long, extended breaks
• Not mysteriously disappearing throughout the work period
• Not talking, texting, and using the Internet on their phone while at work

Caregivers that display any of the above behaviors are clearly not committed to your health care and assistance needs. Unreliable, inconsistent care that is punctuated by many mysterious breaks and disappearances is a sure sign that you need to find a new caregiver.

Your caregiver should be by your side, in your sight, and within hearing range at all times while at work. They are there to help you with your needs and absolutely nothing else.

Affordability

Home health care is a highly utilized service by senior citizens across the country for a variety of factors. In addition to enabling them to live individual lives that are self-reliant, and dignified while allowing them to live within the comforts of their home, home health care services are popularly opted for due to their comparatively affordable pricing.

With many home health care agencies staffing highly trained and educated professionals who can attend to a multitude of senior-related health concerns, there is often a corresponding range of prices offered.

As you pick and choose the type of services you need, the professional that is best-suited for your needs is matched with you and with your budget.

Be wary of home health care agencies that advertise prices that are either exceptionally low or incredibly high. Quality home health care services tend to be in a similar range of prices without peaks and valleys in pricing.

A healthcare agency offering services for up to 80 to 90% off competitor pricing is a surefire indicator of a situation that is too good to be true—don’t be the person who falls prey to what could be a scam or poor business practices.

Reputation

Your home health care agency should be of excellent repute with candid reviews readily able to read online and elsewhere. A simple Internet search of their business name can yield a plethora of highly valuable information that can guide you to making a well-informed choice.

Make sure that you read all reviews available, whether they are good or bad. You want to get the best idea possible of the agencies services as a whole with respect to their consistency in providing excellent healthcare and practicing good business practices.

Specialized Services

Your home health care agency should offer a range of specialized services that seniors can opt from to meet their individual needs.

If you require IV-drips, specialized medical equipment, shots for diabetes, or even weekly blood tests or other specific medical situations, can your home health care agency readily provide this equipment and ensure that it is brought to every appointment by a professional knowledgeable in its use?

Consider specific needs you have such as transportation, companionship, appointment management and more.

Ask your prospective home health care agency if they are able to guarantee high-quality work in all the areas of most pressing concern to you.

Conclusion

Home health care assistance services have the ability to become an important and integral part of your life as you stride through your golden years and plan the next steps for your newest journey, passion, interest, or goal. With so many agencies available on the market today, it can be difficult to make the right choice.

However, with a keen eye on aspects such as professionalism, empathy, reputation, and more, you can take the necessary steps and cursory research involved to easily discern the best service for your unique and individual needs.

Providing you with the level of assistance you require and a frequency you prefer, home health cares are invaluable resources that let you focus on becoming the healthiest and most dynamic version of yourself ever—with a life full of optimism, spirit, grace, enthusiasm, and, most importantly, strength.

Sources:

www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/08/us-life-expectancy-hits-record-high/16874039
www.money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2016-03-10/why-no-one-can-afford-long-term-care-insurance-and-what-to-use-instead
www.ssa.gov/retire/estimator.html
www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/08/long-term-care-insurance/index.htm
www.bankrate.com/finance/retirement/basics-of-reverse-mortgages-1.aspx