Alzheimer's & Dementia Specialists Provide Home Care with Heart

Home Instead Senior Care is a national private duty homecare organization with the strength of around 1,000 branch offices behind them. From professionalism to that personal touch, they have a formula that really works when it comes to providing the highest level of compassionate service to their clients. We had the chance to sit down with Community Service Representative Nicole Pearch from the local Northeast Ohio office and learn more about what Home Instead Senior Care is all about.

“Private duty,” Nicole shared, “is just another name for non-medical home care. Non-medical home care is where we come into the home and provide assistance with activities of daily living … [such as] getting up out of bed, getting a shower or a bath, getting dressed, getting something to eat—all those normal activities. … We’re really there to keep that senior safe, happy, and [to help them] live long in their home.”

The company provides a variety of ADL (activities of daily living) support elements, including meal preparation. “We have some clients,” said Nicole, “that want us to just come in once or twice a week and cook a week’s worth of diabetic meals that somebody can get out of the freezer or the fridge and then heat up. So, meal prep, light housekeeping, … transportation to doctor’s appointments, grocery shopping, anything along those lines.”

Home Instead Senior Care makes personal care their business. In fact, their motto is, “To us, it’s personal.” From bathing, to grooming, to safety, the company prides themselves on catering their support to their clients’ needs. “Personal care is [a] big need,” Nicole said. “I have clients that still want their own independence in the bathroom, but just want us there to make sure there’s not a fall. We can [also] do the bathing and the showering and grooming. [And something] that people may not think of is assisting with exercise. It’s very easy for seniors to sit all day in their lovely chair recliner and watch TV, but we can also do exercises while we’re sitting. So, it’s having somebody there to do those leg stretches with them. It’s always more fun I think overall, for anyone, to have somebody to work out with than exercising by yourself.”

Physical safety and stability is a main reason that seniors or their family members seek out in-home care. This issue may be particularly front-of-mind for those who have recently had a fall or injury. “Another big piece is mobility assistance,” said Nicole, “and making sure that the senior is safe. If somebody had a recent fall and just came home from a stay at a rehab facility, it’s a [big] transition getting back [into the] home and moving around, [or] learning to use a different walker. We can be there to reduce the risk of falls. … [We also do] medication reminders. While we’re in the home, we’re making sure that they’re not missing those medications because we want to prevent a missed medication that will have a senior end up back in the hospital or the doctor’s office.”

Highly Trained, Compassionate Caregivers

What about quality assurance? We asked Nicole what kind of training and accountability Home Instead Senior Care guarantees with their staff. “At Home Instead Senior Care,” she said, “we only hire about 14% of the people that actually apply to work with us. [We] really go above and beyond to hire the best of the best. … Our caregivers have a lot of training that they’re given before they even go into the home, and then as they’re with us, there [are] still monthly education [sessions].”

Home Instead Senior Care is one of the few private duty homecare companies in Northeast Ohio to employ nurses in addition to their regular caregivers. “[We] have nurses on staff who go in and do quality checks [for] all of our clients,” said Nicole, “and that’s one way that we’re able to monitor what’s going on in the home. There [are] daily logs [where] our caregivers have to document what was done that day, so when the nurses come in to do their quality check, we’re making sure that what we’ve committed to the family is actually being done in the home. … We are one of the only non-medical homecare companies in Northeast Ohio that actually employs nurses. … The families can have access to call the office and actually talk to the nurse if mom and dad are not feeling well. That’s something extra; we go above and beyond.”

Affording In-Home Care

Ah, the age old question: What does it cost? Sadly, non-medical home care is currently not covered by Medicaid. However, Home Instead Senior Care works with their clients to fund solutions. “There [are] a couple different options of how we help families pay for this service. [One] avenue they can use is VA benefits. If a senior himself or herself [is] a veteran or the spouse of a veteran, they can get a benefit called Aid and Attendance to help supplement for homecare assistance. … Another way is if they have long-term care insurance. We can submit a claim and work with their long-term care insurance company and then handle it all from there. And then lastly, one thing that people don’t realize [is that families can] apply for a grant from the Alzheimer’s Association. They do have funds available for certain circumstances, and we’ve helped two families recently get some funds. … So we really look at the families overall situation and then find the best avenue for them.”

Going the Distance

We wondered how Home Instead Senior Care differentiates themselves from other private duty care options. “Number one,” Nicole said, “we specialize in Alzheimer’s and dementia, and we actually offer a lot of free family workshops … around [these two diseases], being that resource for the family. Our caregivers are trained and certified as Alzheimer’s and dementia specialists. They know ways and techniques to best work with that client. … [W]e put [our caregivers] through so much training, offer them so much education, to really give them the resources and tools that they need to be so successful. And when we hire our caregivers—one of the biggest questions we get asked by the families is do we do the background checks, and we do. We actually fingerprint our caregivers, and they are drug tested frequently; it’s not just once. … We pull their car insurance records and their driving records to make sure that it’s safe. … There’s a lot of extra attention to detail. And one of the best things is that we’re available 24/7. So, you can call on a Saturday afternoon and start services, or at 9 o’clock on a Friday night if Mom has fallen and needs help. We’re there for the families.”

While Home Instead Senior Care offers many helpful services, no one company does it all, but they aim to do all they can to help clients find the services they need. “We like to be a resource for families and the community,” said Nicole, “where they can call and ask if [there] is something we can help with. If we can’t, we definitely pride ourselves on giving resources for the families, other avenues that might benefit their needs. Call our office and we can come out and do a free assessment, or [we can] help somebody out over the phone.”

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Here at HandyPro, we make your well-being our priority. Our interview series goes hand-in-hand with that effort, and we hope you find it helpful! For more information on how we can help you make your home a home for life, visit us at www.StayAtHomeModificationsInc.com or call me (Brian Pritchard) at 216-212-7531.

If you’d like to learn more about Home Instead Senior Care or schedule a free assessment, you can reach them at 440-287-7658 or find them on the web at www.HomeInstead.com/116.

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