Usually, there comes a time in life when one needs help caring for our people, people close to us, or our loved ones. This includes people who are elderly, newly recovering from surgery, differently-abled people, disabled people, sick individuals, injured, post-rehab conditions, or people who cannot live on their own as they could have been before. Hence, it then becomes important to look into at-home services, so that people will be provided with the help they need compassionately and lovingly, so they can still be able to carry their day-to-day lives with another helping hand from the Home Care Agencies.
What do they do?
The home care agency employs individuals who have hands-on experience dealing with the situations mentioned above and, hence, are trained as well on how to carry on their tasks smoothly, while giving them a level of safety and comfort and meeting their day-to-day needs. There are a variety of things that the individuals from the home care agencies can help with. Beginning with personal care and assistance, nursing, therapies, etc. The following is a list of them;
- Helping with eating and drinking
Whether you are newly recovering from an injury or surgery, or unable to do so, your eating and drinking are essential to bring your body back into a healthy shape. The people employed would help you eat and drink in a correct manner making sure that you do not end up dropping in unnecessary places causing more damage.
- Offering medicines and food as prescribed
When hired they have a run through your history and give you what you are prescribed for. They can help provide you with food and medicines on time according to the assigned schedules, so you do not skip any essential meals or medicines. They function more like an alert system or notifications; notifying you about when you are supposed to take what.
- Helping you through showers and bathroom
When injured, ill, recovering, or unable to do so. They help you through the process, either by giving you support or doing it for you. This also includes changing the pampers giving you a bed pen and emptying the urine bags when needed.
- Talking to you in terms of entertainment
Especially when individuals are bedridden it becomes hard to keep oneself entertained and that leads to more adverse health effects like depression, etc. These hired individuals will talk to you, lighten up your mood, and help you read. Sometimes they can also play games with you if your position enables them to do so, making sure you are well entertained and your time passes by in a friendly and wholesome way.
- Helping you with the house chores
As a lot of people are mentally aware of what is going on but cannot physically do it, they can take the help of these experts in running the house chores, this can include being guided on how to cook while you dictate the recipe or help you clean up according to your orders.
- Helping you with exercises
During illnesses, remaining fit remains essential so people who can do exercise, the individuals can help assist in the weight lifts, or help pick up the equipment and help position the equipment in the right way on the body.
Moreover, then there comes the home care nursing services as one sometimes cannot stay at the hospital so much so these light services are carried out at home. These are called home health nursing services. The following is a list;
- Changing your dressings for your wounds
- Giving you the injections on time
- Putting the drip through your cannulas
- Removing the cannulas
- Basic health assessments- blood pressure, glucose levels, oxygen, heart rate
- Managing the catheter
- Keeping track of the urine bags- making sure how much is passed to tell the doctors
- Ensuring the tubes and pipes are inserted right
- Education about the disease and the treatment
- Trained in emergency- CPR
Home Care: Therapy services at home
Some home agencies also offer therapy services like physical therapy, speech therapy, and occupational therapy.
Physical therapy is also known as physiotherapy. It trains your muscles how to move again, more like teaching them how to slowly start again. This can include teaching people to walk again or helping them with joint pains- cater exercises for the area.
Speech therapy is another kind of service that agencies offer. Individuals who go through trauma or a stroke often lose the ability to speak fluently, these trained individuals start slow and help the individuals recover and get back their speech and language by offering a set that they would practise with them daily.
Occupational therapy is another kind that involves assessments of individuals so they learn their abilities again to perform their tasks. They help individuals regain balance, strength, and coordination. This caters more towards learning the activities of daily living.
The importance of choosing the right agency
People are hired from an agency when there is a need for dependency for the ill, injured, disabled, or differently-abled people at home Care. It is important to make sure that it is a reliable agency with trusted individuals as they will be actively present around the house, so you need to make sure that they are not involved in any sketchy activities that can harm your space and the patient.
Moreover, to be able to be comfortable and trust the expertise the agency offers them a task that they have to pass, so it is better to hire from an agency that is licensed to make sure the patient is given the love and compassion in the right manner.
If it is a proper Home Care agency and if anything happens to the individual they will cover it for them and offer you a replacement so you do not have to stress about not having anyone look after your loved ones.
Final thoughts
Giving your loved one under someone else’s hands can be a tough decision and bringing a person into your house can be too. It is important to do your research well beforehand to make sure you are well-versed about the agency and if the patient even needs it or if it will be feasible. Hiring an agency can be a very good helping hand and can help the patient recover faster as well as prevent any unpleasant thing from arising as there will be less pressure on the patient.