Home Health Care

An article by Joanna    No Comments

Do you have a plan for when a parent or grandparent needs extra help? This topic has come up lately for me because a relative of mine has had to find extra help for her mom. It has to be such a hard place to be in – when your mom needs help getting around the house , worrying that she might fall – and not being able to offer the help yourself, especially if you’re working full-time and have more family members that need your time too. When she decided to get in home health care for her mom, it was like a light bulb moment for me.

I’ve known plenty of people who work for home health care companies, but this is the first time that I really thought about it from the other side of the coin. I don’t know if it’s the same everywhere, but here folks are usually discharged from the hospital and have to go either to a rehabilitation center or nursing home until they’re able to get around on their own again. Since I promised my parents not to put them in the home too early, home health care sounds like a great option. That way they can be discharged from the hospital, still get the care they deserve even while I’m working or tending to the rest of the family, and be in their home (or mine).

My aunt was able to schedule someone to come to see her mom at certain times of day, so she didn’t have to worry – I thought that was a great idea. When I was poking around on some in home care websites, I also noticed that they sometimes will take care of children as well. When my husband was just graduated from high school, he had knee surgery, and I can only imagine how difficult that would be if he lived on his own. Luckily for him, he still lived with his parents at the time, but if not, that would’ve been a great idea for him.

What will you do when a family member needs extra help?