Working with Family Caregivers to Maximize Homecare
Cooperation between agencies and family members can make homecare easier for all
Family caregivers can be an important part of an effective home health agency’s care plans for any homebound patient. Considering their needs, training, and capacity when you are working with a family member in taking care of a patient, can go a long way to successful outcomes. In this blog, we will provide the top tips to help family members help you, in caring for your home health patients.
When you are receiving an inquiry call from a family member of someone needing care, you are likely talking to a central figure in the family who has taken on the most responsibility as their current primary caregiver. Based on AARP statistics there are more than 53 million caregivers providing unpaid and often untrained care to a loved one in the United States.
As a professional agency with qualified nurses and caregivers (or sometimes trained home health aides, they are relying on you to help close the gap. The top ways you can assist these family caregivers are as follows.
Tip #1 - Check in on their progress – how things are going
Caring for a loved one can shift things so that a family member’s whole life revolves around someone else’s needs. This a quite an adjustment, and as a home care agency owner or office staff member, you can seize the opportunity to ask the caregiver how they’re doing, help them with basic training and protocols, and find out how to operate as a team to ensure the best care is provided.
Tip #2 -Offer resources
Whether someone is utilizing your agency’s services or not, prepare and offer resources for caregivers to use and so you can be a source of hope, empowerment, and helping someone even when it doesn’t immediately benefit you. Home health agencies have tools such as home health software, supplies, and access to compliance rules and caregiving techniques that the average family caregiver does not have. Use those tools and resources to instill good practices that will help them care for their family member.
If someone is out of your service area or only needs caregiver support outside of your agency, by establishing yourself as a resource, if they have a friend in the area or know someone who can use your assistance, they will make a referral.
Some external resources that family caregivers may find particularly useful include:
● State or government-funded
caregiver compensation programs, such as Consumer Directed Personal Assistance
Programs (CDPAP)
● A list of Medicaid Waivers
and sources of financial help for caregivers and their loved ones
● Respite programs
● Organizations that are
advocating for caregiver compensation and rights
● How to navigate our healthcare system (ex: how does one qualify for inpatient rehabilitation following a hospital stay?)
Tip #3 - Keep it simple
The amount of time family caregivers have to spend learning through trial and error and advocating for a family member can be extremely daunting and disruptive.
When
giving advisement, speak in layman’s terms, translate difficult concepts into
short, easy actionable items, and make sure the rest of the family or anyone
else involved in care is on the same page. The simple reassurance that you are
there as a resource to help can mean a great deal in advocating for your client
and doing what you can to support their loved ones.
Since diagnoses and conversations that take place in a medical setting are often spoken in medical terminology, this can often come across as a completely different language than English. Use your experience and knowledge to simplify information as often as possible
Tip #4 - Be a partner
Home health can be much easier when it is a group effort between an agency and a family’s loved ones. With the combination of the shift towards home and community-based services paired with home health technology becoming an integral part of home health care, families will need nurses and caregivers to almost become extended family in guiding them through care for their loved ones.
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Additional home health care blogs you may be interested in:
1. Point
of care charting for home health agencies
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