home care It takes a team to provide home care for a loved one that is homebound. The circumstances for why this special care is needed, can indicate the level of care required.  This type of care can also be challenging in many ways.

Providing essential home care requires organization for the caregivers and the care recipient. Initially I suggest that you determine what their specific needs are by doing a needs assessment, just like you would do to organize your home.

After you get everything set up, and as you provide essential home care for your loved one, you will need to tweak solutions to work more effectively for everyone involved.  The list of actions below will help you get started to organize the care recipient’s living spaces.

  • Part of your home care needs assessment needs to include safety. Walkways and areas of egress need to be clutter-free to provide ease of mobility, especially if the care recipient uses a mobility device such as a walker or wheelchair.
  • Communication is so important for everyone involved to provide the level of care that your loved one needs. In order to keep everyone in the know, I suggest that you create a caregiver binder to provide relevant information for everyone that needs to know.
  • Store supplies where they are used, and within reach, so they are easily accessible to everyone involved.
  • Keep a list of supplies that are running low in a central location to make sure that you don’t run out.

It’s also very important to take care of yourself. As mentioned above, caregiving can be challenging and you don’t want to become burnt out. If you become overwhelmed and need help, ask for it. Enlist family and friends in any way you can. You don’t want to get so stressed out that you can’t function, or you won’t be any good to anyone, including yourself.

There are also options for caring for homebound loved ones, by hiring private companies that specialize in non-clinical home care. They can take a lot of day-to-day responsibilities off your plate to alleviate your stress.

Ask family and friends, or your loved one’s social worker, if they have one, for recommendations. These are private pay companies that are not covered under insurance. However, if your loved one has long-term care insurance, check with them to see if this type of home care is covered to help with the costs.