Senior Home Care

Today many options are available for senior care. Some, even provide an at home type of living style with all the perks of adult care. However, many seniors choose to stay at home. In fact, an estimated 10 million American seniors prefer to live at home. That number will greatly increase over the next few years. Because of these increases efforts are continually made to insure adequate home care.

Currently there are two types of home care services. They are Medicare and private pay. All Medicare at home care services are run by the state which means they are regulated by state and federal regulations. Private pay care providers slightly differ. They are generally available under one of three categories which include:

• Agencies- which offer professional and regulated services with qualified licensed care givers connected to the agency but hired by the family
• Registry- which is a type of brokerage service that lines up care providers with families in need
• Family/companion- hiring of care providers is solely done by the family privately

The private hire option should be handled with the utmost care. You want to be sure that whomever you hire is qualified to provide the exact needs of your loved one. Expecting a potential employee to provide credentials is certainly a reasonable expectation. References are also a good way to be sure you’re making the right choice. There are also some important factors to choosing appropriate care services. One important issue is that only home care agency service providers are bonded and covered by liability insurance. Registered Nurses always oversee the provision of care received through agencies. However, this is not always applied to registries and never is through independent care providers. Agencies also provide in home supervision of their staff. Independent care providers are hardly ever open for on call care. Registries sometimes provide staff with this type of access. Of course, agencies expect their staff to be available 24 hours a day which may be crucial depending on the amount of care your loved one needs. Agencies and some registries demand that their staff is tested and trained. The difficulty with independent care providers is they offer no guarantee to this so you have to take the initiative to expect verification. This is not meant to imply that Registry and Independent care should not be considered. These options are most often more economically sound. You are likely to find quality care using either service. Knowing what questions to ask and what result you expect will help you to make decisions that you and your aging loved one can both live with in comfort and ease.

If your loved one has specific needs always be sure to address those needs with whomever you consider hiring. For example, if your loved one is diabetic and the nurse you’ve interviewed is compassionate and skilled but has never worked with a diabetic patient before politely declining would be your best option. These thoughts may simply seem like common sense issues however, as our loved ones age we become stressed with the concern of the care and needing relief from the strain can sometimes blind us to the obvious. Be prepared at the forefront. List questions beforehand and note any concerns you may have immediately. Investigate all your options fully and confidently select the option that will cause you the least amount of worry.