Among one of the most important aspects of healthy aging is ensuring we as elderly, patients, and family, are entitled to high quality care when we face issues with health, ailments or other chronic diseases.
While deciding which type of care is best suited for our needs, it is important to know your options. Choices range from personal care, primary care, in-home, nursing home, and more. If you end up deciding on home health care assistance, there are five vital things to take into consideration when choosing the best service for you and your needs.
Experience
When seeking home health care assistance, be sure to employ services that will provide high-quality care. Whether you need help with household chores, ADLs, bathing, grooming, medical or financial management, you should have someone assisting you who is patient, empathetic, and effective.
Before hiring a home health care agency, make sure that the service can provide you with a trained, licensed, credentialed, and experienced aide. If it is possible, try to set an appointment with the aide selected with you beforehand, to ensure you feel happy and comfortable with the selection. During this meeting, be prepared with questions that will cover every aspect of the care you need. As a reminder, it’s always nice to have someone with you during the interview, such as a spouse, child, or friend, who can give you a second opinion.
Empathy
Did you know one of the biggest complaints heard by Medicaid, Medicare, and individual home health care agencies is? That the aides are unprofessional and lack empathetic attitudes towards clients.
Assistive healthcare is grounded on empathy and respect. It is vital for those in this industry to carry compassionate hearts while doing this work to ensure seniors have healthier livelihoods. However, it is sometimes the case people are drawn to the work based on salary, and low expectations of the difficulty of the job. These individuals may not realize the hands on work and need for sympathy until they are employed. Some of the biggest complaints from seniors about aides consist of sarcastic comments, short tempers, rude eye rols, and sighs. If you hire an aide who displays any disrespectful signs, immediately report them to the agency and demand a replacement.
Professionalism
Whoever you hire should demonstrate a high level of professionalism while working as your aid. You may have your own ideas of professionalism, but signs of professionalism for home health care aides include:
- Always showing up to work on scheduled days.
- Always on time to work.
- Arriving to work with all necessary tools such as paperwork, devices, medical equipment, etc.
- Immediately begins helping with your needs.
- Takes reasonable breaks, and does not abuse them.
- Diligent at work and does not frequently use phone to text, call, or surf the internet during work hours.
If you notice a caregiver who does not exhibit these traits, then this is a sign they may not be fully committed to your assistance and health needs. A good care-giver will be by your side to help whenever you need it.
Affordability
Home health care services are relatively popular due to their affordable pricing options. As you begin the search for the service for you, remain wary of prices that seem very low or extremely high. Due to the volume of home health care services with trained and educated professionals, there is a similar range of prices available. Most services should be in a similar price range of each other, and you will notice this during your search.
Cautionary advice: If you see a service offering 80 to 90 percent off of a competitors price, then this should raise a red flag. This typically indicates a scam or a business with a poor record.
Reputation
When looking for the right health care service, be sure to find a service with an excellent reputation. In addition, make sure their reviews and testimonials are easily found with a simple google search. After searching the name of the business online, read all of the reviews you can. This means good and bad, as this can help you form a better idea of the service as a whole.
