When it's time for a loved one to transition into hospice care, you may prefer a home setting. However, it can be difficult to provide all the necessary care for your relative without help. You can use home health and medical services to provide the support and assistance needed for both the patient and the rest of your family. Here are just some of the services a home health worker can provide during home hospice.
Care Coordination
Your home medical service can help coordinate doctor's appointments, monitor medications and their reactions, and ensure your loved one is getting the medical care recommended by the primary physician. This may mean scheduling appointments, filling prescriptions, or monitoring vital signs throughout the day. Home medical care providers can also monitor the efficacy of pain medications to help your loved one feel as comfortable as possible.
Daily Living Needs
Providing care for all of your loved one's daily living needs can be difficult, particularly if you have children or other family members to care for as well. A home health service can provide assistance with bathing, dressing, grooming, and toileting, among other personal needs. The service can also offer meal preparation and assistance with feeding, which can also help to relieve some of your daily workload when caring for your relative. If your loved one is bed-bound, be sure to ask for help with repositioning and physical therapy to help reduce the risks of bedsores and other related injuries.
Emotional Support
Emotional support is essential during hospice care. An experienced home medical care worker can provide a shoulder to cry on or a friendly ear for you as you navigate your way through the early stages of grief, and he or she can also provide companionship for your loved one. Home care workers can provide access to support groups, therapists, and a wide range of other support services that you and your family might need during and after hospice care. If companionship and emotional support are important to you, consider asking about specialized services, such as support animals, which can provide constant companionship even when the home health worker is not in the home.
Having the right support network is critical during hospice care. If you prefer to keep your loved one at home during this time, home medical centers can provide a bridge to medical care as well as help with all of the daily tasks that caregivers must tend to every day.
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