Most people are aware that the overall population of the U.S. is aging, and that more and more elderly people require partial or full-time care, just to carry out the basic daily necessities of living. The professionals at MD Home Health, as well as Arizona health care workers throughout the state, urge you to take the time to find the right caregiver for your elderly loved one. Even those seniors who are not physically disabled, are still much more vulnerable than younger persons, so it becomes extremely important to be sure that they are getting the right kind of AZ home health care.
Here is a handy checklist you can use to make sure that your loved one receives proper treatment from a Phoenix health care aide.
Phoenix Home Health Checklist
- The home health care agency does background checks on all its employees, especially those directly employed as caregivers.
- Caregivers can be available during the night if needed, and on an emergency basis, should that be necessary.
- The agency can provide the type of care needed by your loved one, and at the hours recommended by your family doctor for that kind of care.
- Either the home health agency itself can provide extra needed services, or can help arrange for them – some examples might be for having meals delivered, physical therapy, mental health counselling, etc.
- If your loved one lives alone, you may need some level of housekeeping services, in addition to bathing, dressing, shopping, transportation, meal preparation, possibly laundry service, navigational assistance, and medication reminders.
- When skilled nursing care is needed by your senior loved one, any agency which you work with will need to have that kind of professional experience available, and must be properly certified for that work.
- References or online reviews are available about the agency and individuals employed by the agency, and these references are predominantly positive in nature.
- Any special needs which your senior might have, such as language, physical disability, hearing/vision loss, can be accommodated by the firm that you consider for AZ health care.
- The cost of home health care with a candidate agency is within your budget, without having to sacrifice important services needed by your loved one.
- It may be difficult to learn about a specific caregiver’s personality and his/her on-the-job manner, but this could be critical to having your favourite senior be compatible with the caregiver. If you can talk with other people who your candidate has worked with, you may be able to anticipate what to expect from them. If it is possible, both you and your elderly loved one should have a preliminary interview with a candidate to get a feel for what they’re like, and whether he/she is likely to get along with your senior.
Your Final Decision
In the end, there is bound to be a certain amount of guesswork and intuition involved with making a choice for the role of your senior’s caregiver. While you might get a strong feeling about a candidate caregiver merely from talking with them, when you get around to making a final decision, it should be based on factors more practical than how you feel about someone. By consulting the above checklist, and adding in any other important factors for your situation, you stand the best chance of making a good decision about home health care for your loved one.
If you are looking for senior health care or home care in phoenix area, contact us today. We have home health care options that can be tailored to your needs and budget.