Are You Caring for Someone Else but Feel Exhausted by It? Caretaking can be exhausting; you find yourself succumbing to every cold or flu that passes through town while neglecting your own needs for sleep, activity or personal time.
As home health care and personal home attendants can become increasingly challenging to manage, hiring an in home caregiver may be your solution to help manage their responsibilities more easily. This article details how caregivers differ, discusses qualifications for choosing one and provides resources to find one.
Duties
Home caregivers perform various duties. These may include cooking meals and adhering to any dietary restrictions; housekeeping; laundry; scheduling of appointments for patients as well as making sure they attend them on time; housecleaning services are also a vital resource in care homes.
Some home caregivers work independently while others join an agency providing home health services. When working for such an agency, caregivers are trained and managed by nurses.
Caregivers must provide emotional and physical care for those they support, including compassionate and friendly interaction with patients. Financial tasks, like paying bills and filing paperwork for benefits should also be managed efficiently by caregivers; transport to appointments should also be provided if possible – ideally the caregiver should possess a valid driver’s license so as to be able to transport patients themselves.
Qualifications
Home health caregivers, also referred to as attendants, must possess an array of skills. Additionally, they must be capable of managing emotional challenges presented by sometimes unpredictable clients and situations, being patient yet firm when necessary to keep clients under control, especially if they experience negative reactions to care or are feeling down.
Physical fitness must allow them to spend the majority of their shift on their feet and perform light housekeeping duties such as vacuuming, laundry, mopping floors and dusting; heavy duties like moving furniture or mowing the lawn fall outside their scope of duties.
Caregivers must possess excellent written and verbal communication skills in order to successfully meet their obligations as caregivers. Caregivers will frequently communicate with family members or caretakers of their client as well as doctors or nurses regarding the client’s condition, relay instructions back and forth as necessary, relay instructions backward and forward, etc.
Requirements
Caregivers must possess an open heart and patience, in addition to specific professional qualifications that vary by state and agency such as certification levels, training requirements and continuing education requirements.
Home care services may be provided in either short-term (rehabilitation) or long-term (chronic illness, injury or disability) modes and may involve professional attendants hired from reputable home health agencies; skilled nurses providing healthcare services; or family members acting as caregivers for loved ones.
If you are interviewing with a reputable home health agency, request information on their services and fees, licensing requirements for your state and benefits such as liability, workmen’s comp and unemployment coverage for their employees. Caregivers often work long hours on their feet lifting patients between locations as well as passing background and drug screening tests.
Benefits
Home caregivers tend to work outside the traditional office environment, accommodating a patient’s schedule as best they can. If you prefer not being tied down by an inflexible 9-5 schedule, this might be the ideal job opportunity for you.
Working as an in home caregiver provides immense personal fulfillment. By developing intimate relationships with your patients, working as a caregiver allows for personal satisfaction that transcends mere financial rewards.
Most states offer Medicaid programs that cover in-home care services for seniors and people with disabilities, though you can also access such care through private pay or long term care insurance policies. Some communities also provide low cost home care through special funding and programs – for more information about such programs in your community contact your Area Agency on Aging for more details. Caregivers provide services such as companionship, house cleaning, cooking meals and setting daily exercise routines among other things.