Ember Healthcare provide personalized care, tailored to your unique needs in Edmonton and Surrounding Areas. Tammy Whittaker, CEO and Founder of ember, and Sabrina Whaley, COO and Co-Founder are sharing with us valuable resources. With their support, WSAC can continue to provide essential services and support to our senior community, enabling them to thrive and live life to the fullest.
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WHAT IS HOMECARE?
Many of us already know that homecare involves a caregiver comes to you, in your home, to provide assistance to you or your loved ones. There are quite a few names for the types of services available in homecare, and this can be confusing if you’re new to the system.
Lets start by exploring the terms you will need to know. They are: Home Support, Personal Care, Respite Care and Overnight Care.
Home Support
Home support is an all-encompassing term for things that we do to run the household. When we get to a place where we cant do some of the tasks we used to and could use a hand, home support is designed to help!
Things like doing the dishes, emptying the dishwasher, changing the bed linens, doing laundry, getting the mail, feeding the pets, meal preparation, running small errands, or writing a grocery list when pantry items run low are all considered home support. These are all available through home care providers to help you maintain your independence in your home.
Unfortunately AHS does not always approve home support through the traditional public model, though they certainly will consider it on a case by case basis.
Personal care
Personal care includes all the things you do in a day to keep yourself clean, dressed, fed, and up and about. Things like medication assistance, bathing, feeding assistance, lifts, transfers, toileting and peri care are common. It also includes any medical assistance folks may need, like ostomy care, or help with their catheter bag, or puffers, medicated patches, eye drops etc.
Generally speaking, once someone needs assistance with personal care, AHS will approve public funding for it.
Respite Care
Respite care is where a caregiver comes into the client’s home to take the place of their regular caregiver, so the caregiver can take a break or leave the home.
Some caregivers are still in the workforce, and need someone to be present in the home while they are away at work. Others need scheduled break times in order to make doctors appointments or to go grocery shopping and just get things done outside the home. Maybe they have 4 hours of respite care regularly scheduled every Monday, or Wednesday.
Different yet, some caregivers really just need to lay down and rest because they are exhausted.
Meaningful respite care is important. It does not have to be boring, and a good provider will spend time to learn what would the best activities to do while the caregiver is away.
Often respite care is approved for through AHS for public funding.
Overnight Care
Overnight care is mostly self-explanatory. Some people need continuous monitoring and overnight care is available to allow caregivers to rest knowing their loved one is safe.
Palliative clients, or those with progressed dementia who wander at night, or those who cannot turn themselves to reposition can all benefit from overnight care.
AHS will often only approve overnight care through the public model on a temporary basis. We most often see folks discharged home from hospital who are awaiting a placement in a long term care facility approved for overnight care. Palliative clients are often can be approved for overnights as part of end-of-life care as well.
We want to extend our sincere gratitude to Ember Healthcare for generously sharing these valuable resources. Their contribution plays a crucial role in empowering our seniors for a better quality of life.
Stay tuned for more blogs by Ember Healthcare!
