It’s a common misconception that in-home care is for people who are very ill, immobilized and unable to do anything for themselves. In-home care agencies provide more than just advanced home care for those in dire medical condition. Many of the home care services we offer are the same responsibilities that a lot of people do for their aging parents.
If your parent is still in reasonably good health and living on their own, you may both struggle with the idea of enlisting outside help. It can be hard to justify the expense or “fuss” of home care services for someone who is still mobile and fairly independent. This is very common. Unfortunately, what often ends up happening is that the person who takes on the caregiver role quickly realizes how time-consuming even basic assistance—like grocery shopping, hairdresser appointments, and taking mom to church—can be when also trying to juggle a job, children, and their own household.
To give you an idea of what a typical week looks like for a personal assistant, below is the calendar for a senior care recipient who does not have a chronic illness or require advanced home health care. Most of the tasks look more like those of a personal assistant than a home healthcare provider, but these are tasks that a home care agency can help with.
They include:
- Grocery shopping and errands, such as picking up prescriptions, dry cleaning, etc.
- Meal planning, preparation, and storage
- Transportation to and from appointments and activities, such as church, social functions, etc.
- Joyful companionship, such as playing cards, going for walks or to the movies, correspondence, etc.
- A broad range of services to choose from and the flexibility to enlist the amount of help that best suits your needs makes caregiving easier on you and the entire family.
David Porter, CPCA,
Director
Living Assistance Services – Senior Home Care