Home Care is becoming increasingly popular amongst the elderly. It provides many benefits that individual’s may not get if they move into a Care Home and these include: maintaining independence, promoting dignity, increasing confidence and maintaining self-esteem. Home Care services help individuals to continue to remain independent within their homes and remain part of the community for as long as they possibly can.
What services can be provided?
There are many different services that can be provided as part of a Home Care package including assistance with all aspects of personal care. This covers a wide range of areas an activities including: bathing, showering, assisting with personal hygiene, dressing and help with toileting.
Night sitting services can be provided as part of a Home Care package, these can be put into place to provide support for individuals, particularly if they have poor mobility and struggle to complete day to day tasks alone. These can be conducted either as awake or sleeping nights depending on an individual’s needs. Awake nights are where a care worker stays up all night to support the individual where needed, whereas a sleeping night is where a care worker stays in another room to provide support for the individual, if needed, but can only be disturbed twice.
Shopping services can also be provided, this service would be particularly useful as it prevents an individual from having to go shopping, particularly if they have poor mobility or if it is simply an activity that they struggle to complete on their own. Similarly a laundry service can be provided if it is an activity that an individual struggles with.
Help with domestic tasks can also be provided and this includes meal preparation, useful where a person is having difficulties and would still like a well balanced diet each day. Care workers can assist the client in meal planning for the week to ensure they are getting the meals they prefer rather than relying on pre-prepared meals. It is important that a person’s health is maintained and Home Care workers will ensure a client is eating and importantly taking on enough fluids each day. Meal preparation is helpful, also, where a client is becoming forgetful and could cause themselves harm by leaving the gas on or leaving a pan on the cooker.
Medication is another area that Home Care can provide help particularly with the prompting of medication and the keeping of medication records. This service ensures that an individual is taking all of the medication that they need and at the appropriate times. This is beneficial as it will prevent individuals from missing out on their medications, which in turn could prevent them from becoming ill.
Individuals can be escorted on outings as part of a Home Care Package. This allows individuals to maintain a level of freedom, and it allows them to continue to partake in the activities that they enjoy. A care worker could support an individual to go out for walks or take them to somewhere that they do activities. This is beneficial because it allows an individual to maintain independence and feel like part of the community.
In Conclusion
As you can see there are many services that can be provided under Home Care package and a good Care Agency will ensure that the service is tailored to the individuals requirements and is flexible over time as things change. Individuals will always be encouraged to do as much as they can for themselves as it is important to maintain mobility, but we all have to accept that at some point in our lives we will need help. Any Home Care service should maintain an individual’s level of independence, dignity and freedom. You are encouraged to explore what Home Care can offer you because you may well be surprised what you can achieve in your own home.