What is Home Healthcare?
Home healthcare is a professional support service provided by an experienced individual to those in specific needs. It is for the sick or disabled people, who require facilitation and care around the clock. Home healthcare professionals provide all kinds of services, from taking care of the patient’s medications and meals to doing their laundry or groceries as well.
A bedridden or disabled person can hire their own home health aide or someone who finds it very hectic to care for a loved one who is sick or old may hire it for them. This aide is not only for the elderly – younger people who are in need of assistance can hire it too.
What Services Do Home Caregivers Provide?
The services of home healthcare vary from one healthcare professional or organization to another. However, the general services a home caregiver provides include:
- Medication management
- Housework
- Laundry
- Feeding
- Assistance with everyday activities
- Postal pick-ups
- Grocery
Why Choose Home Healthcare?
The elderly or the sick people usually have no choice but to take care of themselves, not because people do not care about them but because it can be hard for someone else to provide the time, attention and care they need along with their own personal commitments and routine. Due to this, not only do relationships suffer but more importantly, the patient’s health deteriorates with time.
Home healthcare is reported to have helped strengthen family ties and helped patients recover better and faster. Since home healthcare is not appreciated as much as it should be, it is very important to know the range of benefits it offers.
If you are thinking of hiring home health care either for yourself or a loved one, here are five benefits you must know:
1) Home healthcare can help you recover quickly
Home healthcare helps you recover faster. Patients have seen significant improvements in their chronic health conditions after hiring home healthcare services. It is because the person you hire to help you during your sickness is a professional and knows how to take very good care of you. Moreover, that person, unlike nurses, has just you to look after and can give you his/her full attention.
Once you hire home healthcare professional for yourself, you become comfortable with that person and build a friendship with them, which surely has a positive effect on you. Medical conditions are known to get better when your emotional health is well and you have a strong positive attitude towards your life. These professionals are caring and loving and will help you stay optimistic through thick or thin. You develop a deep bond with them. All of these factors come together to help you recover quickly and maintain a positive attitude towards your health.
2) Home caregivers help you with housework, even if that’s the only thing you need
A lot of people are unaware of what home caregivers can do for you. Many times patients or their families do not want someone to take care of the sick but need help around the house instead. As people are unaware of the services of a home caregiver, they do not hire help even when they are truly in need of it.
One great benefit that home healthcare offers is that you can hire them for any work that is related to the assistance of the patient. It is not just about taking care of the sick person. For instance, the patient may need someone to clean their room or do their groceries. Home healthcare can also be used for such tasks.
3) They provide meal and medicine management
One great benefit of home healthcare is the meal and medicine management and administration services that it provides. As someone with a patient in the family, you do not have to fill your phone and walls with reminders of food and medicines once you hire home health care.
These professionals take care of everything. They can also prepare food for the patient if that is enlisted in their services. These professionals are diligent and understand that someone’s health condition depends upon them. Moreover, they also offer to pick up medicine from the pharmacy. With the knowledge they have of medicine and its administration, you do not have to worry about your patient. You can trust that your patient is in safe hands.
4) Inexpensive alternative to the hospital care facility
If you opt for a hospital care facility, you do get nurses who are much more educated about the patient’s health condition than the home healthcare. However, their treatment of the patients is very formal.
On the other hand, home healthcare professionals have a much kinder and friendlier approach to give the patient the empathy and support they need to recover. Also, they provide a lot more services than you get at a hospital care facility. The hospital care facility is only concerned with the patient’s medical condition. Considering these factors, it is amazing how inexpensive home healthcare is – these professionals charge no more than 12- 15 USD per hour.
5) The service is more personalized than a hospital
It is one of the greatest benefits that help in the quick recovery of the patients. Home healthcare professionals provide better treatment as they only need to focus on one patient day in day out. So, they understand the patient’s mood, condition, their emotional wellbeing a lot better than other facilities. Because they know all this about their patients, they are able to provide more personalized treatment to their patients. This treatment caters to the patient’s needs and moods. Patients become very comfortable with their home healthcare professionals and are able to rely on them and open up to them about everything they are going through.
Conclusion
Despite the benefits it can bring for the patient, we underestimate the value these professionals can add to our lives. As the proportion of elderly in the population continues to increase with time, it is high time we start giving this profession the attention and respect it deserves and engage these professionals for taking care of our loved ones at their time of need. Home healthcare facilities can be a lot more beneficial than we realize. Once you hire them, you will realize the difference they can make in the life of someone who is sick or too old to care for themselves. It will be a decision you will be glad you made.