Important Questions To Ask When Determining If Your Loved One Needs Supportive In-Home Care
If you care for someone who has recently experienced a significant health problem or if you have noticed that they are no longer able to take care of themselves as they should, it is important to consider the option of supportive in-home care. Since there are so many different types of supportive in-home care to choose from, you can hire someone for just a few hours a week, around the clock and anything in between. Since choosing the right person or persons is so important, knowing the answers to the following information will be very helpful.
#1-How Often Should The Hired Person Be Working?
It is important to note that many individuals do not like the idea of having a stranger in their home or helping them with the tasks they would prefer to do themselves. Therefore, it is a good idea to only schedule workers for the least amount of time. If a few hours a week is not sufficient for the person in question, the continuity of caregivers will also be useful.
If one or two people work in the home full time and provide many different tasks, it is often easier for an older person to get used to their presence. In addition, it will also be useful to hire one person to provide as many of the daily tasks as possible, assuming that paying that person is not a problem. Five or six people who all work a few hours a week could be very stressful for a person who may not be too happy to have anyone's assistance in the first place.
#2-Do You Need Immediate, Full-time Help?
Another option to consider is to slowly increase the amount of time that the worker spends in the home as you slowly decrease your own presence there. Doing so may allow your loved one to accept the presence of a new person more easily than if it were to occur all at once.
If you find that you actually need more services than a single person could safely provide, you can use the same idea to gradually introduce the second or third person as well. For instance, if you find that a nurse is needed to provide medication and a home-health aide will help prepare meals or clean up the home, you should consider staggering their introductions into the home.
In conclusion, supportive in-home care (such as is provided by Cornerstone Hospice and Palliative Care) can prevent elderly individuals from needing to move out of their home and into a nursing home or other alternative living center. When you need to choose the appropriate professional to provide assistance to someone you care for in their home, the questions and answers listed above will be helpful to consider.
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