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Three Tips to be Prepared for Home Care Services

Posted: 12/26/2013 10:06 AM by Interim HealthCare

3 Tips to be Prepared for Home Care Services

If you’ve made the decision to hire home care services, then you want to make sure that you’re going to be prepared when the in home care service provider shows up for the first time. There are a few things that you can (or should, depending on the needs of your elderly loved one) do in order to get everything in order and ready.

Have a plan in place regarding what your loved one is going to require throughout this level of care.

Whether this level of care is going to be short term or something more permanent, you should have a general idea about what they are going to require from this in home care provider. This means that you should have an idea about what you expect from the care that your loved one is about to receive.

Of course, this should have already been discussed with the home care services agency, and if you hadn’t done that, then you may have some issues to address with the care provider when they arrive as they may have a different set of expectations.

Get the house or apartment in order.

While you certainly don’t need to get your loved one’s home in pristine condition, you want to make sure that it is relatively clean and organized. The last thing you want is to invite an in home care provider into a house that is disheveled, unclean, and especially unsafe.

Even if you have hired a caregiver who is going to help out around the house and do some basic cleaning, that doesn’t mean that they are supposed to be your loved one’s maid or primary cleaning service. Their assistance is going to be as a supplement, to help out, and not to be a cleaning person. Make sure that home is clean, or as clean and orderly as possible.

Have a list of emergency contact numbers readily available, as well as a list of medications.

Make sure that you provide all of the most important emergency contact numbers for your loved one’s doctor and anyone else. Also, have a list of all upcoming appointments, if the in-home care provider will be driving your loved one to any of them.

Put this information in a location that is near the phone and easy to find. Many people keep them by the refrigerator in the kitchen.
If you have any other questions about how to prepare for home care services, you shouldn’t hesitate to contact the agency and find out if there is anything else that you can do to prepare properly.

If you or an aging loved one are considering home care services, please contact Interim HealthCare. G+