Choosing care for a person you love is personal. The goal is to help keep them safe and healthy while allowing for independence. This information sheet discusses the early symptoms that may exist, the types of questions one may wish to ask, and actions that may be taken when visting relatives or others who may need special attention. Local resources available to families, local community programs that may help, and clinical information will be combined in a home first plan.
Early Signs a Loved One Needs Help
Small changes will show up first and can be overlooked. Watch for a pattern over a period of time to see what is changing. Keep a simple record so that this pattern cannot be overlooked.
- Medications missed or difference in dosage method even though pill holders prompting notices are used.
- Loss of weight or gain in weight which is linked to an empty refrigerator, spoiled pruients in the fridge, or meals not taken which indicates nutrition aspects that could be evaluated.
- New dings in the car, repeated stumbles or fear of falling which tends to limit activity and the social aspects of their life.
- Mail piling up, unpaid bills, or deterioration in housekeeping, laundry, and home organization aspects.
- Problems with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, toileting, and safe transfers. See here for more details.
If more than one of these seems to hold true, it might be timely to explore home care which might be aimed at certain conditions. Early diagnosis can help eliminate avoidable falls and errors in the use of medication which can lead to emergency visits.
Things Families Forget
It’s easy to get so involved with the medical to-do list that the stress of caregiving seems unimportant. This stress builds slowly but surely, robbing the caregiver of sleep, personality, and well-being. Help with visitation, aides, and an emphasis on the condition will help to provide some security without uprooting the loved one. Care teams can also assist families in understanding the red flags and how to change things about the home that will reduce them.
Being alone brings on a rapid decline. Simple things that make for daily or weekly routines—conversations, walks, meals—will help promote appetite and motivation. After a hospital stay or surgery, home help reduces readmissions by promoting mobility, hydration, wound care, and timely follow-ups. There are a number of agencies now that have specialized home care services that target conditions like dementia, Parkinson’s, and heart disease.
A good plan is flexible. It can start with rides to medical appointments, light meal preparation, companionship, etc., and move into other areas or lessen the help as needed.
Questions to Ask Yourself
Before moving to a plan, pull back from the picture and look at the total scene. Use the following questions to lead discussions with the family or conduct a conversation with the physician of the loved one:
- Is the loved one safe in the home for a few hours when left alone for several hours or at night?
- Are the basics (meal preparation, bathing, reminders for meds) being provided coming across as consistently?
- Have there been any falls, ER visits, or new diagnoses which would require the management of a chronic condition?
- Are family caregivers losing time from work, sleep or are experiencing burn-out?
- Would schedule help for a few hours several days per week build independence and reduce stress?
Can Part-Time Care Be Enough?
Often yes. Many families start with a few hours a week for meal preparation, errands, bathing, etc., and then increase the help when illness strikes and lessen it on recovery. Particularized basics such as foot care, vital signs, pill preparation, and wound care can be added and halted as goals are reached and these can be worked into daily and weekly routines and budgets. Trials at first to get used to the program and have an opportunity to see if everyone fits.
Planning Ahead with Confidence
Think of home care as a series of manageable steps—not a cliff. Goals that are targets need to be clearly defined (safety, connectivity, mobility) and the measuring program after these goals have been set. Plans will need to be altered or amended to include things like medication management, transportation service, or dementia situational programs that allow a patient’s dignity and choice to be retained.
The primary physician and therapists should be involved in meetings so notes can be made of successes, failures, appointments, or things that change about the main caregiver. There should also be a simple fallback program for weekends and holidays so that the services do not lapse.
You don’t have to do this alone. An old and honest agency should be able to match needs and problems with skills—from companionship to quotas for mobility back into the area of chronic problems. This considered effort will help health be retained, problems managed so that crises are prevented, will help keep everyone assenting to which they want at home a more extensive run this week of Health.
