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Innovations in Caregiving

Apr 24, 2018

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When it comes to home care for you or your loved one, there are a range of caregiving options available. It might be difficult to determine which of these is truly the right path for your situation. Perhaps it will help for you to better understand the options set before you before moving forward.

Companionship Care

This type of care is provided by someone who is not a medical professional. This assistive care is when someone comes into the home to help provide services such as bathing, dressing, meal preparation, and simple household tasks on behalf of the individual. Things like dishes, vacuuming, fall prevention, or assisting someone with a wheelchair in need of transportation may all be things that are offered through companionship care. This type of assistance is separate from administering medicine or working with specialized equipment on behalf of a senior or patient, and their role is strictly to help improve quality of life.

Private Nursing Care

Private nursing care is designed to be a long-term situation, and at-home nurses may either be stationed in a home full-time or arrive on a set schedule to aid individuals who have a chronic illness, a severe injury, or who are coping with disability. A home-based nurse has the medical training needed to assist a wide range of situations, including brain and spinal injuries, or conditions that require a ventilator, catheter, or the administering of medications. A private nurse can enable an individual to live at home even while coping with a long-term health situation, while still receiving the care that they need.

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Home Health Care

This type of health care assistance is also known as Medicare-certified home health care or visiting nurse services. This is a temporary at-home health care service that has a specific set of goals prescribed by a doctor, where the visiting medical provider assists the patient to recover from an illness, injury, or addiction without being in a hospital or medical facility. Physical therapy to recover from a sports injury, for instance, would fall under this category of care. Medical social work, speech language pathology, occupational therapy, and a range of other short-term assistance services are provided through home health care to help take patients from point A to point B in their personal journey of recovery and is not intended as a long-term service.

How Do You Determine What’s Right for You?

All it takes is careful strategizing with your doctor to determine the health care assistance that you or your loved one needs in a particular situation. If the illness is chronic, then such in-home nursing may be needed for a window of time. If an individual has Alzheimer’s setting in, then having companionship care could be the very best thing for them. It all depends on your particular need, and it’s important to partner with your doctor as you strategize the right plan for at-home care. Contact Peconic Bay Medical Center, a family medical center in Suffolk County, NY, for more information on caregiving.