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Originally Posted On: https://www.althomemakingwithaheart.com/how-do-i-choose-a-home-care-service-near-me/

 

Remember when it was your parent that gave you a safe and loving home? Maybe times have changed and now you are the one that needs to secure this similar environment for those you love the most.

Finding the best senior care near me might sound like an impossible task. The good news is that it’s not. Here are the steps you need to follow to find the best home health care for those you love the most.

Finding the Best Senior Care Near Me

Today’s senior home healthcare industry provides many formats and models, based on what your parent can do for themselves. Before you begin to interview these sites, there is some homework you’ll need to do first.

Evaluate Your Parent’s Needs

Take some time with your parent to assess what they currently can or can’t do for themselves. There are two assessment tools that can gauge these abilities. They’re called an Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and an Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) assessment.

ADL tasks are those everyday personal hygiene activities. Examples of these activities include:

• Showering and bathing
• Getting dressed
• Using a toilet
• Using cutlery to feed themselves
• Getting to or out of bed alone
• Shaving or brushing their teeth

IADL functions are the everyday tasks that many consider as routine tasks that any adult may perform every day. These functions can range from grocery shopping to driving their car. Other IADL functions can include:

• Maintaining or cleaning a home
• Taking prescribed medications correctly
• Managing finances such as paying bills, etc.

When you get a true picture of these daily living capacities, then you’ll be ready to identify which health care agency can offer the home care services that your parent will need.

Assess the Expenses

The next task is to assess your parent’s current finances and determine what fees they’ll see for these services. The good news is that there are public subsidies that can help defray these expenses associated with aging.

The US Medicare Health Insurance program delivers entitlements that can help pay for those costs associated with taking care of aging Americans. Medicare will cover expenses ranging from nursing home fees to home health care aides.

Medicare can also pay for senior care costs such as nursing home costs and other private home health care services. Sometimes an enrollee will choose to sign up with a Medicare supplemental plan (also called a “Gap” plan) to help defray any long-term care expenses.

Most Medicare supplemental plans are purchased through a private insurance company provider. For example, Medicare Supplement Plans M, L, and K all have similar arrangements when it’s time to pay for hospice fees or nursing home expenses.

Medicare Plan K can cover over 50 percent of hospice care costs. Medicare Plan L can pay for 70 percent of these expenses. Medicare Plan M can pay for around 20 percent of these expenses.

Call Your Local Area Agencies on Aging Network

The Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) is a network of over 600 nationwide organizations that provide senior care services within a local area. Area Agencies on Aging offer resources and referrals on services that range from finding ”home health care agencies near me” to offering a home-delivered meal.

Consider Different Home Health Care Arrangements

Home health care is an option for taking care of the elderly. This model allows a senior to maintain their independence and stay in their home as long as possible.

Sometimes a senior’s home might need age-in-place alterations. They might also need a visiting family, professional caregiver, or other network support.

Once you’ve evaluated your existing funding sources and your parent’s physical abilities, you can now look at the many home health care arrangements that are out there. Each model has its own characteristics that will help you identify what meets your parent’s needs at their current stage in life.

Here are some common forms of home health care arrangements you might consider.

Nursing Care

Home nursing care is also called home-based skilled or long-term nursing. This care model is for a senior who needs medical care for a disability or chronic condition.

Professionals that can provide this type of home-based care include licensed practical nurses (LPNs) or registered nurses (RNs). Specialized medical services that these professionals provide include monitoring vital signs, changing bandages or administering medication.

Home Health Care

Home health care focuses on those patients that have short-term health problems like an injury or illness. Home health care professionals include speech pathologists, physical therapists, and doctors. This care model is designed to help the patient return to independent living as quickly as they can.

Respite Care

Respite care transfers primary caregiving responsibility from one person to another person or organization. The goal of respite care is to give full-time caregivers a break to rest or handle other daily needs while their loved one is cared for by a competent professional.

In-home respite care providers will come to your home and provide relief. They can also provide care to a patient at an adult day care center while the primary caregiver takes a break.

Research Area Providers

When you have the names of home care providers near you, start digging into their caregiving credentials and other background information. The Area Agency on Aging near you is a good source to help you with researching this information.

Accreditation can come from agencies such as the Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP). The Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC) also helps providers demonstrate high standards for patient care.

Interview Caregivers

Start interviewing potential caregivers and ask how they vet their employees. You should also find out if this agency’s front-line staff have other unique skills. These skills might include specialized training to serve Holocaust survivors or foreign languages used.

Next Steps?

Ready to find the best “senior care near me?” If you are, then you should start right now.

When you have a true assessment of your parent’s IADL and ADL abilities, call your Area Agency on Aging. Ask them for referrals to those local providers that will help support your parent where they need it the most.

Be sure to head over to our customer reviews for more feedback on our senior home care services. We can craft a custom-made plan for your parent’s individual needs. Let us be the stay-at-home alternative for those difficult senior care decisions that you have to make.