Home Care has many options. The agency will work with you to develop a plan of care allowing individuals the ability to age in place in a safe and secure environment.  Many agencies have a minimum number of hours required daily.  Depending on the agency you choose times of service can vary from 1-4 hours minimum per day up to 24 hour care. Make sure your agency is State licensed and the employees are supervised and trained by a skilled nurse.  Also ask if criminal and other background checks are required and how long is their training program.  Are there any lifting restrictions? Does the agency have general liability insurance and workers compensation insurance coverage for their employees? How long have they been in business and how is the caregiver’s time in the home documented.  The decision to hire a home care agency can be met with resistance, since nobody wants to give up their independence or feel that they are losing control of their daily lives.  Many older individuals do not mind a family member’s help but hesitate to let a stranger come in and “take over”.  Home Care professionals understand this and are willing to meet with the older person to explain their services and reassure the individual that his or her wishes will be accommodated as much as possible. 

A variety of services are available in home care including but not limited to the following:

• Personal Care- Bathing, dressing and grooming
• Meal Preparation
• Medication management and reminders
• Light housekeeping
• Errand services and grocery shopping
• Conversation and companionship
• Transportation
• Laundry assistance
• Mobility and transfer assistance and monitoring

The in home care plan should provide support while maintaining the individuals dignity and allow them as much independence as possible to promote aging in place.  It is difficult to hire a home care agency for the first time for your loved one, but once the plan is in place and the senior gets to know their caregivers that are visiting the home daily, weekly or monthly you will see a transition occur as they start to look forward to seeing their caregivers on a regular basis. 

Services can be paid in a variety of ways including private pay, Veterans Administration pension benefit, many in home support programs through your local Area Agency on Aging and through a long term care insurance policy.  The agency can help you through that process.

If you do your research and ask the right questions an in home caregiver can provide piece of mind while helping you or your loved one maintain your independence in your home.

In the next blog entry, we will be discussing home health care and what to expect.

Submitted by Karen Curry, Director of Community Relations at Caring Mission Home Care and TCM Home Health. Visit us on the web at www.thecaringmission.com or check us out on facebook for more helpful articles and tips at www.facebook.com/caringmission  or give us a call to speak with a caring professional at 1-866-922-7464.

I worked on a lot of projects until I was handed the Senior Citizen’s Guide to Pittsburgh, a guide that was started when my publisher’s father retired from a life of government and social service. What first struck me about the guide was that it was very localized and had a wonderful grassroots/hometown feel. I’ve learned so much about Baby Boomer and senior concerns and services and have enormous respect for people who work with and serve older adults in our community. My husband even jokes that I know more about being 60+ than I do about being my own age!

Of course, I’ll never truly understand what it is like to be older until I get there. But I do know first-hand from being very close with my grandparents (Gramp is 80 and Gram 78) that there are many transitions and changes in terms of finances, health, housing and lifestyle they have gone through from back when they were in their late 40’s helping my very young parents raise me to the present as great grandparents to my two children.

I don’t think even they know the extent of their positive influence on my life. I love to hear their stories about the past and present as well as dreams of the future and only wish they were less modest so that they would tell me more of them.

I had many older friends growing up who also shared their insights and histories that still stick with me today, including a woman named Violet who I had been introduced to through a program at church when I was in high school. She lived alone on an old farm with a mean old goose that liked to chase me around as well as a bunch of cats that I would feed for her. I recall her, 80+ and vibrant, washing out her sandwich bags to save them while telling me about the Great Depression and stories of her youth and heritage, teaching me how to make tomato sandwiches – yum! — and to play a mean game of Scrabble. Now, Violet could tell a story and so many of them have stuck with me through the years!

I’ve now been managing the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia editions of the Senior Citizen’s Guide with its wonderful “Boomers Resource Guide” supplement and overseeing its many new city editions from Boston to San Francisco for a total of over 12 years. A lot has changed! Our website, www.SeniorCitizensGuide.com, gets over 450,000 hits on average per month, and we now are even utilizing social media to market our features and advertisers (Twitter and Facebook)!

Now that the Senior Citizen’s Guide is expanding as a series into so many new markets, it is becoming even more important to me to maintain our localized, grassroots feel, no matter how big the series may grow. To aid in this effort, I welcome all of you to submit your stories and articles! Technology makes it possible for everyone to have a voice. Not just the powerful or the young.

This is a call to all readers, distributors, local businesses/organizations, and our supportive advertisers to become “guest bloggers” or contributors to our brand NEW Senior Blog on www.seniorcitizensguide.com!

Let us know what topics you would like covered, what resources we are missing. We long to hear from all who wish to educate, inspire, stimulate and simply tell their stories.

Please email me at jenn@spindlepub.com with your ideas and suggestions. We can’t wait to hear from you!