Home care generally describes medical care or support provided in the patient’s home, but this term is generally applied to non-medical care or custodian care given by persons who’re not licensed medical personnel. Family and friends, who’re known as caregivers, primary caregiver or voluntary caregiver in this context, can offer home care. Mostly, however, services are supplied by agencies or independent providers.
Seniors comprise nearly all the recipients of home care. Of the, studies show that more women than men need in home senior care. You will find other individuals who’d typically use this service home care services in Florida, such as for example individuals with disabilities or special needs and people dealing with major surgeries.
This kind of care makes it possible to stay in the home and in the environment they’re most more comfortable with in place of using long-term institution-based nursing care. It allows them to be near loved ones and gives them a sense of living a “normal” life in place of longterm stays in a hospice or nursing home. There’s also many different possibilities for home care services, depending on the type and frequency of assistance needed.
Care can include professional medical care services or life assistance services or a mix of both. The first one describes services such as for example physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, psychological assessment, medication teaching, pain management, wound care and disease education and management. But more often, home care involves assistance with activities of daily living.
Activities of daily living include those who reflect the patient’s capacity to look after himself, such as for example eating, walking, bathing, dressing and using the toilet. Additionally it covers daily tasks such as for example light housework, preparing meals, taking medication, shopping, using the telephone and managing money. For the latter, home care providers are there to educate and advise, with the in-patient making his own decision on financial matters and signing his own checks and financial or legal documents.
Home care services are often available 24 hours per day, seven days a week. However, options include having providers on a shift, part-time, hourly, live-in or an as-needed basis. Providers can also work independently or as a team.
Aside from live-in care, home care is more affordable than most board and care homes, skilled nursing homes and assisted living facilities. However, there are several factors to be considered pertaining to cost when deciding on home care. These include location and ability of service which will be needed. Homemakers, personal care assistants and companions will all cost less than home health aides or skilled nursing care, and caregivers hired though an agency cost significantly more than direct hires.
Billing may be on an hourly, daily or weekly basis with payment coming from the patient and their family members or through many different public and privates sources. Professional medical care services are usually ordered by a doctor and may be covered with insurance. Some community organizations, including the local cancer society or Alzheimer’s association, may offer funding to help pay for home care services.