What is Home Care?
The term home care actually describes two very different types of care:
- Home health care provided by licensed medical professionals for which the individual has received an order or prescription from a healthcare provider.
- In-home care, providing personal care, homemaker or companionship services provided by professional caregivers.
In broader terms, home care that aging adults typically require often revolves around the Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) and the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs). These can be provided by non-licensed home care providers.
ADLs are basic activities and functions performed on a daily basis that are usually done without assistance. The six ADLs are:
- Eating
- Dressing
- Bathing
- Toileting
- Transferring
- Incontinence
IADLs, on the other hand, are those activities instrumental to our daily routines such as:
- Driving
- Preparing meals
- Doing housework
- Shopping
- Managing finances
- Managing medication
- Using the telephone
Why Home Care?
A Home Instead® study found an overwhelming majority of older adults (86 percent) want to continue living at home for as long as possible. Aging adults appear to be willing to seek help to do that. The study found that 54 percent of seniors who live alone are four times more likely to use professional care than those who live with their children.
The users of in-home care tend to be older: 42 percent of seniors over the age of 80 rely on professionals. Family caregivers and senior care professionals may notice changes in their loved ones, which send up a red flag that an otherwise healthy older adult needs more assistance to remain safely and independently at home. Or, perhaps, you are seeing these changes in your own health.
Next we will discuss some signs that are an indication it might be time to call for help.
When more help is needed:
- Household bills piling up. Feeling overwhelmed by the simple task of opening and responding to daily mail.
- Reluctance to leave the house. Problems with walking, remembering and hearing will prompt some to pull away from their community and isolate themselves. Socialization can be an important need to be met for healthy aging to occur.
- Losing interest in meals. Aging adults who suddenly find themselves alone, perhaps after the death of a spouse, can be easily discouraged by such tasks as cooking and tend not to eat
properly. - Declining personal hygiene. Changes in appearance, such as unkempt hair and body odor, failing to change clothes for days on end or wearing clothes that are inappropriate for the weather, are
among the most obvious signs that an aging adult needs assistance. - Declining driving skills. Are parking or speeding tickets, fender-benders, dents and scratches on the car becoming a problem?
- Scorched pots and pans. Cooking ware left forgotten on top of an open flame may be a sign of short-term memory loss.
- Possible signs of depression. Feelings of hopelessness and despair, listlessness, fewer visits with friends and family, a change of sleeping patterns and lack of interest in the usual hobbies and
activities may be indicators of depression. - Missed doctors’ appointments and social engagements, and isolation. These can be signs of depression or forgetfulness. But they can also be the result of no longer having a driver’s license and
not knowing how to get alternative transportation. - Unkempt house. Changes in housekeeping may come about because of fatigue or inability to keep up with household chores. They could also result from depression.
- Losing track of medications. Aging adults often take multiple prescriptions for various health conditions. Keeping track without reminders and assistance can be confusing to anyone but, for
an older adult, signs of forgetting medications show a need for assistance in medication management.
Read this resource in full below (PDF).
