Use This Checklist When Arranging Home Care Services
It’s time to arrange home care. How do you do it? It’s important that you hold a family meeting with everyone involved in your parents’ care. It helps if you have your parents’ input and have everyone available to ask questions at one time. This checklist can help make it easier when it’s time to arrange home care services.
Talk About Your Parents Goals and Needs
Home Care Ada, MI: Arranging Home Care Services
Sit down and discuss your parents’ goals. Do they want to downsize or is it better for them to stay in their current home. If the home is multiple levels, are the stairs becoming too much for them to manage? Can they set up a downstairs room to be a bedroom?
Aging in place is probably their goal. To make that happen in the safest manner possible, what needs to happen? Would they need someone to help prepare their meals and snacks? Do they need housekeeping services? How about companionship, transportation, and assistance with personal care and hygiene?
Address Their Financial Health
Home care services are paid for out-of-pocket. If your parents are already struggling to pay their bills, home care may seem out of reach. Talk to your parents about their bills and see if there are ways they can save money to use towards home care.
They may find that reading the news for free online eliminates the need for a newspaper. They may be able to switch to a more affordable internet service. They may find streaming shows helps them save a lot of money as cable TV is no longer necessary.
Evaluate the Safety Within Their Home
How safe is your parents’ home? Is the lighting in hallways and on the stairs adequate? Are rails on stairs both inside and outside the home secure or have they become loose?
Is carpeting loose or curling up on edges? Are floor tiles cracked to the point they slide around? Does your mom love placing throw rugs on wooden floors? All of these issues are leading reasons for accidental falls.
Assess Your Mom and Dad’s ADLs and IADLs
Go online and find a list of the tasks that make up activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). Which of those tasks are your parents able to do independently?
Jot down a list of the services your family feels could help them. Those are the home care services to focus on at first. When you call a home care specialist, you can ask for additional suggestions.
If you or someone you know needs help with Home Care in Ada, MI, contact Gauthier Family Home Care. We provide quality and affordable home care services in our community. Call us at (616) 258-2300 for more information.
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