For those who might be candidates for a nursing home, but who still wish to remain in their own homes, a private, home care agency that helps those in need of assisted living services may be the ideal answer. Assisted living services provided by a home care agency don’t include Nurses Mechanicsburg PA, but the service does families with the reassurance of knowing that a capable, screened person is in the home daily to make sure their loved one has meals, assistance with personal daily cares, housework, companionship, and even run errands like picking up prescriptions and shopping.
The staff is not permitted to provide medical care. However, they can be invaluable in reminding the client to take their medication and making sure that the client takes the correct medication. The agency staff are not necessarily Nurses Mechanicsburg PA, but they do pass background checks and receive training.
When a client and their family work with a home care agency, the plan of care can be customized according to the client’s needs. Some clients need 24-hour care, while others just need a few hours a day. Staff may work in shifts or even provide live-in care. Clients and their families get to interview caregivers to find the right match. It eases the physical toll on families as well as the emotional stress to know their loved one isn’t alone.
The amount of time needed to be in the home, attending to bathing, laundry, making beds, preparing meals, and other home care duties may be physically stressful for an elderly spouse to help the patient with. Families may not have enough time in their own day to help with help with personal and household needs, and they may not even live nearby.
Families dealing with a patient who has Alzheimer’s have special concerns for the patient’s safety and for the patient’s emotional well being. As the disease progresses, at some point they will likely need nursing home care in a unit where the doors are kept locked so that confused patients don’t wander outside. However, many families want to use home care for as long as possible since allowing the person to remain at home in a familiar environment may extend their ability to be as independent as possible. Some home care services are aware of the special circumstances in dealing with patients who have this kind of dementia.