What Happens When You Can't Find Reliable At-Home Care?

Besides pull out your hair...

You’re in the throws of a work meeting, and… suddenly, your cell rings. It’s Dad. “Sorry, gotta take this,” you say as you quickly leave the room. Now, what’s wrong? You’re walking while trying to extinguish worst-case scenarios galloping through your mind.

“It’s another no-show,” your dad says dejectedly.

Honestly, doesn't anybody want to work these days? It’s been no small feat reaching a family agreement to support your dad’s desire to age at home, and after modifications to the house, everyone feels he’s safer and more secure. The missing piece is hiring good people to show up for the personal care he needs—every day, on time, as agreed upon.

Valuable personal connections as resources to solve the issue evaporate, arrangements fail with excuses, and help doesn’t arrive.

If the help hired by a friend or a friend of friends worked well for them, why did it fall apart for you? Perhaps it’s a different time or place. But you don’t have time to figure it out: you need help now.

Consider a different approach

A full-service, licensed home healthcare agency can provide home care (non-medical) and home healthcare (medical) personnel to help solve the problem. Though it may be a pricier option, they cover many obstacles you no longer have to worry about. For example, you can take these worries off your plate.

• Background checks

• Confirmation of credentials

• Taxes and billing

• Protections for theft

• Quick worker replacement if things don’t work out

You’ll find home care (non-medical) help is provided by professional caregivers. This means caregiving is their profession, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they have additional education and licensing. They can help in the home (house, condo, apartment, senior community) and can assist with:

• Bathing

• Dressing

• Preparing meals

• Eating

• Cleaning

• Ask about a morning service (bathing, dressing, eating breakfast, taking medications)—and/or

• Bedtime service (medications, help to undress, safely getting to bed) or staying overnight

It’s also possible to extend hours for companionship, which is sometimes equally or more important than physical help with daily tasks.

Home healthcare provides medically related services in the home (house, condo, apartment, senior community) instead of in a medical facility (hospital, nursing home). You will have medically trained and licensed individuals who help increase the ability to tend to one’s needs. These services are provided in response to a doctor’s order for a limited timeframe and can include:

• Physical and occupational therapists

• Speech therapists

• Skilled nursing

• Post-operative care

• Wound care

• Mobility training

• Pain management

• Intravenous therapy

• Injections

Home healthcare providers can only perform the prescribed tasks, and their time with your loved one is done.

Fastest results when you need help

When you need referral possibilities beyond those from people you know, go straight to the internet. Search for home healthcare agencies + near me or your zip code + covered by Medicare. The Medicare add-on at the end of the search won’t significantly reduce your options, but it does ensure your list only includes those agencies that Medicare will pay (a behind-the-scenes security check).

You’ll quickly be in the world of home healthcare providers, which, like any business category, run the gamut from excellent to barely reputable.

Licensed home healthcare providers are regulated by individual states’ Department of Health and are subject to both scheduled and unannounced inspections. Governed by federal, state, and local laws, their licensure is subject to strict compliance with standards regarding:

• State boards

  • Medicine

  • Nursing

  • Pharmacy

  • Physical therapy

  • Occupational therapy

• communicable and non-communicable diseases

• controlled substances, drugs

• equipment or devices

When the State arrives for an agency review, it is a multiple-day affair: thorough, stressful, and with possible mandated remediation, fines, or, in extreme situations, suspension of their agency license.

Additional options for help

Doctors and nurses are always good sources for referrals, especially if you ask those who recently treated the individual you’re helping and are familiar with their current needs. In addition to their general practitioner (GP), ask any physician specialist involved in their recent care. You can safely bet they’ve had recent home healthcare marketing representatives call on them to share their latest agency news.

Alternatively, consider calling a nearby senior living community and ask for either the sales and marketing director or the director of nursing (who will likely be more challenging to reach). Explain your situation to them, including your decision to support efforts for your loved one to age at home, and ask whom they would consider hiring if it were their Mom, Dad, or anyone else. I received many calls like this and can attest to always having an opinion based on agency performance with seniors in my building.

Residents and their families often told me about their positive and negative experiences with the personnel who helped them, so even if you’re not looking to join a senior community right now, the sources of information are still worth investigating.

In conclusion…

Your hands are full, and you need help quickly. I’ve given you the best ideas to meet your needs and return life to order after the chaos. After years as a director in senior living communities and hiring home healthcare professionals for my parents, I firmly believe licensed agencies are the way to go for help in the home. You may not be thrilled with the price, or some personalities might not quite jibe, but their built-in features, flexibility, and compliance with oversight regulations work for me.

Please let me know what you think!

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PREVIEW:

Smarter Caring, Smarter Living’s next article will address augmenting your loved one’s success living in their home with help from remarkably unobtrusive technology.

Then, we’ll examine the variations of senior living communities, who they best serve, and their strengths and limitations.

Even though the Internet makes it infinitely more manageable than years ago to gather information about choices on the spectrum of care, you must visit communities and interview personnel. You’ll discover who’s actually in charge, what to look for and why, and information and questions to personalize for your circumstances.

You’ll be better informed and more empowered to meet the challenges of the winding road ahead and be headed in the right direction to do your best.

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Thank you for being here! Please ❤️ (below) if you enjoyed this piece. Your feedback helps others find my articles and posts, as do Restacks and Shares!

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Having been where you are—with both of my parents and hundreds of families seeking residency in senior community living for their loved ones—I know this is hard but beneficial work. I wish you and yours the best results.

At any point, if you know someone who’s struggling with caregiving demands, please feel free to share my articles. Thanks, and see you soon.

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Graceful Last Chapters: Helping Seniors Who Need More Care

Cynthia Neher Martindale, author

"Kind, intelligent, informative, patient, and humanitarian." -- Amazon TOP 100 REVIEWER

Graceful Last Chapters