Category Archives: Home Health Care

Article by Connie Myres

Home health care is a wonderful service that helps seniors live at home as long as possible. A lot of the care that’s provided in a long-term nursing home can also be provided in the senior’s home. It’s typically used by seniors who need to recover from an illness or injury. The care is typically provided by licensed nurses, therapists, and home health aides.

How do I get home health care?

If the doctor or hospital doesn’t suggest home health care, you can always ask them and an assessment can be done. You can also contact a home health agency directly yourself. Skilled nurses, occupational and physical therapy, as well as speech therapy can assist in the home. Once the patient is referred by a physician, a skilled nurse will go out to your home and do the initial assessment to see if you qualify for home health care. The nurse will also determine if you need other services such as physical or occupational therapy to assist with ambulation and activities of daily living. A speech therapist may be needed to assess swallowing, or a dietitian to assist with the proper nutrition that may be required. The home care plan is discussed with the patient and their family as needed. The nurse then reports back to the physician and obtains any needed orders.

Article by Emiley David

More Home Health Care Articles

Home Health Aides work in patients’ homes and assist with hygene, grooming, meals etc during intermittent illnesses.

A home health aide (HHA or CHHA)is a specially trained certified nursing assistant (CNA) who works in the homes of patients.

Duties

These aides provide personal care assistance to patients in their homes. The duties include but are not limited to:

assisting with personal hygeine such as bathing

shaving

brushing teeth and orla hygeine care

shampooing and combing hair

dressing

clipping fingernails and toenails as appropriate (not usually diabetic toenails)

Intermittent Care:

This care is most often provided in an intermittent visit time frame of about 30-60 minutes. If time allows, the HHA can also change bed linens, prepare a meal, start a load of laundry, and/or tidy the patient’s room. The HHA typically makes 1-3 visits per week as prescribed by the physician and according to the home health agency’s plan of care for the patient.

A home health RN or therapist (PT, OT or ST)supervises the HHA’s care and adjusts the plan of care to meet the needs of the patient in accordance with the MD’s orders.

Since this is a delicate subject and usually involves many family members, it would be wise to research as much information as possible, before making your personal decision of placing a family member in a nursing home or in a home care setting. Don’t rely solely on the advice of the physician.  Don’t rely solely on a nursing facility either.  If you haven’t already discussed this scenario with your family member for their wishes, this could become a heated discussion with multiple thoughts from all others directly or indirectly involved.  But in my case, I saw first hand the pros and cons for each.

If you’re an optimist, quite possibly every situation in your life can be chalked up to a “life altering experience.”   But to be able to convert that to a positive, when it refers to long term care for a close family relative or friend, can be quite the contrary.  Experiencing day to day the 13-year battle for my dad with Alzheimer’s I felt it left me somewhat of an expert.  Little did I know of the multiple variations of this devastating disease, when I embraced the opportunity to voluntarily care for our elderly family friend.  She was afraid distant relatives would leave her in a nursing home with no one to look after her.  That wasn’t happening on my watch!

Article by Clyde Howell

Home health care services are a primary requirement for people anywhere in the world. Home health care services include skilled nursing, personal care assistance, respite and similar services for the elderly and others. These services are important for people of all ages and especially people who are recuperating from illness or need help with regular activities. If you staying in Florida and looking for home health care there are host of service providers from whom you can chose. Whether you are looking for Boca Raton home health care, Boynton Beach, Broward, Century Village or Coconut Creek Home Health Care there are service providers who can offer support round the clock. Sometime it becomes important to seek professional and trained support for helping elders or patients in the house. During these times we need to approach a home health care service provider with our request for trained nurses or staff.