Shirilevita

Posts Tagged ‘Home living’

People from a variety of occupations perform home care: registered nurses (R.N.s), licensed practical nurses (L.P.N.s), and homemaker! home health aides. Physical therapists, respiratory therapists, speech therapists, social workers, occupational therapists, and volunteers can also work with you at home. A very helpful booklet available from the National HomeCaring Council (see address at the end of the chapter) explains what each type of worker does and the level of training and skill required of each.
The type of home-care worker most in demand is the homemaker! home health aide. Homemaker/home health aides assist with personal care such as bathing, grooming, and walking. They also shop, cook, do laundry, and other light housekeeping duties.
Could this be a part-time job for you? The National HomeCaring Council says the present demand for homemaker/health aides outweighs the supply by about three to one, and the need is expected to increase dramatically over the next decade. For older women and men in good health, this could be a gratifying source of employment and income. If you are interested, address inquiries about training and employment to the National Association of Home Care, 519 C Street, NE, Washington, D.C. 20002.
You can obtain home care through three different types of agencies. It is important, in choosing and dealing with an agency, to understand which type it is and how it operates:
Employment agencies and nurses’ registries will, for a fee, find and place personnel in your home. In this case, you are the employer and you pay the home-care worker directly and are responsible for social security and other employer taxes. Most such agencies take no further responsibility for supervising workers or monitoring quality of work—that is between you and the home-care worker.
Non-profit agencies (such as Visiting Nurses’ Associations and Homemaker-Health Aide Services) employ personnel who are supervised and may be further trained after placement in your home. You pay the agency. The agency is responsible for the quality of its employees’ work. If you have problems, you bring them to the agency, which is responsible for correcting them.
Commercial, for-profit homecare agencies are a rapidly booming industry. Because of the growing older population and the need to hold down hospital costs, these services now comprise a $2 + billion industry—a figure that is expected to at least quadruple by 1986.
Some commercial agencies are reliable, but, as the National Home Caring Council points out, potential for abuse and fraud is present. The Council recommends following the next steps to help you avoid many pitfalls in obtaining competent services from any of the three types of agencies we’ve just described.