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Shopping for the Right In-home Help By Eileen Beal, MA

Shopping for the Right In-home Help: Shopping for the Right In-home Help
By Eileen Beal, MA


Home care vs. home health aide
Home care aides provide assistance with housekeeping and chores (meal preparation, shopping, errands, etc); socialization and companionship; and may also provide some personal care (bathing and grooming).  In some areas, they are called personal care assistants.
Home health aides – increasingly certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and/or state tested nursing assistants (STNA) – provide medically-related care (check blood pressure and glucose levels, dress dry wounds, empty colostomy bags, etc.); assist with therapeutic treatments prescribed by a physician; supervise medication administration; etc.
 “The client’s needs and the aide’s skill-level determine what the aide’s [hourly] fee will be.  The more skills the aide has, the higher the cost,” says Debbie Adams, RN, the Director of  the Cleveland, Ohio-based Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging’s Community Services and Support Program.
Write a job description
 Using the information you’ve gathered from discussing and assessing your loved ones’ needs, write a detailed job description.  “Care expectations vary from client to client, so having everything in writing means everyone knows, and meets, expectations,” says Lucy Andrews, the nurse/CEO at Santa Rosa, California-based At Your Service Home Care.