If you have ever heard of home health care, you probably realized that it could potentially be the best and most convenient option for you when it is time to take care of a parent or other adult who can no longer completely take care of himself or herself. This is something that happens to all of us at some point.
Home health care goes by many other names as well. These include domiciliary care, social care, in-home care, and formal care. These are all essentially the same things, and in the following it a few paragraphs we look through what all of that specifically means when it comes to services.
Home health care specifically deals with licensed professionals. These are licensed health care specialists who have gone through all of the regulated training sessions in order to be put on a list of people that can practice medicine. This is an important distinction because there are other types of care that do not require this license.
Included in this short list of licensed healthcare professionals who can provide home health care are licensed nurses, social workers who have medical experience, physical therapists who have been through regulated courses, and dietitians. These people all have medical experience thus fit in this specific category that you are concerned with right now.
This is in direct opposition to non-medical or custodial care. These are the type of people who come in and take care of the elderly more or for a social reason than a medical one. They are not licensed to do things with medication or specific medical devices, and so they have fee different function they perform at your home should you choose to hire them.
There is the matter of why you would choose home health care in the first place. Mostly because, there is going to be a time when you have to either send someone to a nursing home or hospital. If this is not something you are interested in quite yet, home healthcare is a responsible alternative where everyone gets what they need.
The cost of home health care is quite variable. Sometimes it could be quite a bit more expensive than the hospital or nursing home visit, while on the other hand, the money that you save from sending someone in your home may be to your financial advantage in the end.
Home health care is definitely something you should consider for your family or loved ones, or something that they should consider for you if you are getting on in years. It will probably become more popular in the coming years as people are more interested in keeping their family around, rather than sending them away.