What Are the Components of Effective Home Care for an Elderly Person?

What Are the Components of Effective Home Care for an Elderly Person?

TribecaCare
27th Feb 2025

Effective Home Care for an Elderly Person at Home includes the Following:

Doctor Care – to treat a patient who may be seriously ill and incapacitated. The doctor will be required to make home visits on emergencies and also for routine consultations. Many families like to have their friendly general practitioner on call if he or she has been managing the senior patient for many years and may even have recommended home care instead of frequent clinical management in the hospital. The Geriatric Specialist at the hospital or clinic may also make house calls for a patient who is not mobile.

Intensive Nursing Care – to look after a patient who is physically incapacitated to the extent that he or she may need intubation or oxygen or a catheter on a regular basis. A critically ill patient on chemotherapy may need infusion or administering of drugs intravenously, which also needs the highest level of nursing supervision.

Secondary Level Nursing Care – this may be required once or twice a week to monitor protocols like home dialysis, correct administering of prescription drugs, correct oxygenation levels – all of which are being conducted by the Family and Home Care-givers.

Home Care-givers and Attendants – this kind of home help by staff who have rudimentary training offers great relief to Family Members. They help take the patient to the bathroom, change linen, accompany the patient to the shower, handle sponge baths in the bed, attend to calls if the patient can ring a bell, monitor breathing, handle Oximeter readings, feed the patient and make sure all medication is correctly given and on time, as per the doctor’s prescription.

Specialised Visiting Services – Physiotherapy for bone and joint care or post- surgery, Occupational therapy such learning to write after a stroke, Speech therapy after a stroke, specialised therapy for cognitive improvement in patients with Dementia or Alzheimer’s – such as working with puzzles and games. These care-givers are trained in their field and come to work with the patient as many times a week as the doctor has advised – till they are no longer needed

Family Care – this is the day-to-day management of a senior patient at home. It may not involve rigorous levels of care if the patient can walk and eat by himself/herself and attend to personal grooming and hygiene with just minimum assistance. However, the Family Members will still be in charge of handing out medicines and preparing special meals. When it is necessary for them to leave the patient at home, adequate arrangements need to be made so that there is some form of assistance.

Most important for the Family Care-giver is to make sure that there are no accidents. Senior Safety is a major issue for elders at home –losing balance while walking, falling off the bed, slipping in a wet bathroom – these can lead to life-threatening situations.

Social Care and Companionship – Even a minimally ill elderly person who is at home needs companionship if the Family is away at work and he or she is alone for long periods. Today, there are many agencies who have personnel trained in basic psycho-social therapy to provide emotional support. They will come and spend time, talk, accompany the elderly patient for a walk outside and supervise meal times. There are also voluntary organisations whose members may provide companionship services in their community. Similarly, schools and colleges encourage students of a certain age to provide such companionship services to elders for pocket money and also to get the tag of a “socially useful job experience” on their resumes.

Choosing the Kind of Home Care that is needed for an Elderly Person

There is no one size fits all Kind of Home Care Plan for an Elderly Person.
It will depend on the financial status of the patient ( if he or she is alone) or the family members are involved
It will depend on the medical, physical and psychological condition of the patient and his or her willingness to accept different kinds of care.
It may be that the patient has no choice in the matter and it will depend on the family’s ability to provide care while managing their own work-life balance
It will depend on the services available in the patient’s location – hospitals, clinics, voluntary organisations, home care agencies, etc.

What Home Help and Eldercare Service Providers Provide:

Here again, they will offer different kinds of plans and packages which suit different budgets and the physical/mental conditions of the patient who needs the services. Most reputed agencies will even customize their services as individual needs will vary from patient-to-patient.
Most Eldercare Plans cover a spectrum of services: