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Selecting a Partner in Home Care for the Elderly

With 80 percent of middle aged couples having at least one living parent, many people are learning to adjust to the reversing roles of child and parent by confronting the demands of caring for those who once took care of them.

Adult daughters typically assume the major responsibilities for parent care giving. For most women, these duties are added to an already full roster, at home, at the office, or both.

Women frequently report that they sacrifice their personal time, privacy, peace of mind, freedom and personal plans to assist her and/or his elderly parents. Some people assume the responsibility because they feel able and willing. Others feel bound by duty

It’s estimated that up to seven million women are unpaid caregivers to the elderly. They struggle to cope with the exhaustion, loneliness, mental and physical demands, and heartbreak of watching a loved one grow weaker. They need help desperately!

Seniors and families seeking for outside help rely on professionals for in-home care assistance. Unfortunately, many families don’t know how to “shop” for home care. The only question they know how to ask is ‘What do you charge?”

One of the most difficult challenges you face when caring for an aging parent is finding good, quality home care company. Whether you need full time care or just a little extra help to fill in the gaps, when you can’t be there, you are making a serious decision.

Today many companies that provide caregivers do so with the bare minimum standards of screening and selection. Most companies offer criminal background checks, certification checks and reference checks. Some companies also use drug screenings and/or an elder abuse check. Unfortunately, these minimum standards only screen out applicants who are “caught in the act” of doing wrong. A small handful companies are raising the bar on these standards and RIGHT ACCORD is implementing a system called Caregiver Quality Assurance (CQA) to raise that bar.

The Caregiver Quality Assurance (CQA) program is designed to identify home care companies and companion care companies that go above and beyond the norm when selecting quality caregivers. Home care companies like RIGHT ACCORD implementing Home Care Caregiver Selection System are using the latest technology to assure that the people caring for your loved one are trustworthy, dependable, and have the attitude and personality skills needed to provide top quality care. Virtually nothing is more important than selecting the right people to care for your loved ones. Whether you need homemaker services, in-home personal care or companion care, identifying companies that provide only quality caregivers can be a difficult challenge.

RIGHT ACCORD Private Duty-Home Health Care provides an affordable solution for older individuals or couples capable of managing their physical needs, but who require non-medical assistance, personal care assistance, light housework, meal preparation and/or companionship in order to remain at home in Sarasota and Manatee Counties in Florida.

According to Tamunday-Casanova, RIGHT ACCORD services can be arranged for as little as three hours, or for as many as 24 hours, a day. Short term assistance or longer term care is available seven days a week, including holidays.

When a potential client contacts the company, Tamunday-Casanova will arrange a meeting with the client and his or her families to discuss what services are needed. “Cost is on an hourly basis, “Tamunday-Casanova said, “ so hours can be decreased or increased based on changing needs.”

The company’s Caregivers are carefully selected individuals who are thoroughly screened, employed, bonded and insured. “Special attention is given to matching Caregivers with clients to achieve the utmost compatibility, “Tamunday-Casanova said.

]]> http://rightaccordhealth.com/selecting-a-partner-in-home-care-for-the-elderly/feed 0 http://rightaccordhealth.com/what-is-an-advance-medical-directives-and-why-it-is-important http://rightaccordhealth.com/what-is-an-advance-medical-directives-and-why-it-is-important#comments Sat, 13 Feb 2010 02:32:28 +0000 admin http://rightaccordhealth.com/?p=494 What is an advance medical directives and why it is very important?

All persons have rights. When you become ill,  you as a client or patient have rights.

These includes:

1. The right to privacy – your personal and medical information is confidential. Medical records and communications with your physician must be kept private.
2. The right for informed consent – your physician must clearly explain the advantages and disadvantages as well as risks of any procedures, tests or treatments. You must give your permission to such care. You have the right to refuse any treatment.
3. The right to information about your condition. You must be kept up to date about your medical condition, treatments and chances for recovery.
4. The right to information about advance directives. In most cases, advance directives and your rights as a patient must be explained to you.

Advance Directives can protect people in extreme conditions. These people may be unable to communicate due to a condition such as irreversible brain damage or brain disease which can affect their ability to think as well as communicate.  People can benefit from Advance Directives if they have permanent coma or other unconscious states that can leave someone unconscious and without hope for recovery.   Advance Directives also is used when you have terminal illness or a condition from which a person is expected to die within a short period of  time.

With Advance Directives, you can direct health care providers to limit life prolonging measures when there’s little or no chance of recovery. For example, advance directives may enable patients to make their feelings known about the following:

• Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The procedure used to restore stopped breathing and/or heartbeat.
• Intravenous (IV) Therapy. This is used to provide food, water, and/or medication through a tube placed in a vein.
• Feeding Tubes – are inserted through the nose or stomach to provide nutrition.
• Respirators – are machines used to keep patients breathing
• Dialysis – is a method of cleaning patients’ blood by machine when kidneys no longer work properly.

2 Types of Advance Directives are:

1. Living Wills – are written instructions that explain your wishes regarding health care should you have a terminal condition.
2. Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care – is a written document where you can name a person (called proxy) to make decisions for you if you become unable to do so.

More about Advance Directives on next week posting.

RIGHT ACCORD Private Duty-Home Health Care is an agency dedicated in providing you with in-home care assistance to assist  you in maintaining  your lifestyle and independence at home. Help at home is available 24/7 in Sarasota and Manatee Counties,  or as little as few hours to allow you to stay at your own home instead. Senior care is what we are passionate about doing and we are committed to making you stay right at home a reality.

For more information or to set-up for free consultation call us at (941) 366-0801.

One of the things is providing information and  resources to educate our seniors particularly in the maze of navigating the health care system.

Medicare Part D is your Medicare Prescription Coverage.  It is a prescription drug option run by private insurance companies approved by Medicare and contracted by Medicare to help cover the cost of prescription drugs. It may help the elderly lower the drug costs and help protect seniors from higher costs in the future.

Seniors are eligible to enroll for  Medicare when they turn 65 years old. You can  enroll  Medicare Part D within the 7 month period that begins 3 months before the month you turn age 65, includes the month you turn age 65, and ends 3 months after the month you turn age 65.

November 15 to December 31 of each year is the enrollment period and the time when you can switch your Medicare prescription drug coverage and coverage begins  on the 1st of January the following year.

Seniors may also enroll between January 1 to march 31 of each year if they already have a Medicare prescription drug coverage. You must stay enrolled for that calendar year starting the date your coverage begins.

There are certain situations where you may be able to switch or drop Medicare plans such as if you move out of the service area, lose other creditable prescription drug coverage or live in an institution.

What you pay is a monthly premium in addition to your Part B, yearly deductible (some plans don’t have deductible) copayments or coninsurance or your share after the deductible.

The actual drug plan costs varies depending on your prescriptions, the plan you choose, whether the pharmacy you use is in the network and whether the prescription drugs are in your plan’s formulary list.

A coverage gap is available with most Medicare drug plans to pay after your plan spent certain amount and you have pay out-of-pocket limit for the year.

Catastrophic coverage is available once you reach your plan’s out-of pocket limit during coverage gap. This can assure you that once you have exhausted your covered drugs and out-of-pocket limit, you only pay a small copayment for the rest of the year.

You may want to check with the State Health Insurance Assistance Program to compare different plans and costs or visit www.medicare.gov for more information on your Medicare benefits.

For in-home care assistance and seniors who prefers to stay at home instead, please contact us at (941) 366-0801 for free consultation and care assessment in Sarasota, Siesta Key, Longboat Key, Bird Key, Casey Key, Venice, Osprey, Nokomis and Lakewood Ranch.