Pure Home Care Services

At some point in your caregiving journey, you may need a professional partner — such as a nursing home, assisted living, home health, hospice or adult day care. When considering care providers, you need to weigh the options and ask the right questions to ensure that both you and your loved one feel good about whatever arrangements you make.

Home Health
This is the most flexible of all the options: A professional caregiver will come into your home and provide whatever services you need, whether it’s help with everyday household chores or round-the-clock care for your loved one. A home health-care agency will supply caregivers with the appropriate skills and training to perform needed tasks.

Assisted Living Facilities
These facilities are staffed to provide help to people who need assistance during the day, but are still able to live somewhat independently. The level of assistance provided is generally intermittent and task-specific. For example, your loved one may need help with bathing, meal preparation or taking medications. In most cases, an assisted living facility will not accept a person who is unable to move about on his or her own.

Nursing Homes
There are generally two types of care available in a nursing home — short-term, rehabilitative care and long-term care for chronic conditions. In addition to rehabilitative capabilities, nursing homes are staffed to provide for daily medical needs and can accommodate patients who spend most or all of their time in a bed or a wheelchair. Nursing homes can accommodate patients with a wide variety of conditions, including mild to severe dementia.

Hospice
Hospice is end-of-life care provided by nurses, social workers, home-health aides, spiritual leaders and others. The goal is to keep a terminally ill person as content, comfortable and pain free as possible. Depending on the program, hospice care can be provided at home or in a facility. Services typically extend to support for the entire family, not just the patient.

Adult Day Care
Adult day care programs provide care and socialization for people who need assistance and/or monitoring during the day. The goal is to offer respite to family caregivers, allowing them to go to work, run errands or simply get a break from caregiving chores. Depending on the program, adult day care centers provide social activities, meals and certain health-related services.

Source: AARP.org

Contact Pure Home Care Services at (586) 293-2457 today!  If you live in Warren or the surrounding area, we can help you care for your loved ones.

What is Adult Day Care?

Adult Day Care Centers are designed to provide care and companionship for seniors who need assistance or supervision during the day. The program offers relief to family members or caregivers and allows them the freedom to go to work, handle personal business or just relax while knowing their relative is well cared for and safe.

The goals of the programs are to delay or prevent institutionalization by providing alternative care, to enhance self-esteem and to encourage socialization. There are two types of adult day care: adult social day care and adult day health care. Adult social day care provides social activities, meals, recreation and some health-related services. Adult day health care offers more intensive health, therapeutic and social services for individuals with severe medical problems and those at risk of requiring nursing home care.

Seniors generally take part in the program on a scheduled basis and the services that are offered may include the following:

• Counseling
• Education
• Evening care
• Exercise
• Health screening
• Meals
• Medical care
• Physical therapy
• Recreation
• Respite care
• Socialization
• Supervision
• Transportation
• Medication Management

How Do Adult Day Care Centers Operate?

These centers are usually open during working hours and may stand alone or be located in senior centers, nursing facilities, churches or synagogues, hospitals, or schools. The staff may monitor medications, serve hot meals and snacks, perform physical or occupational therapy, and arrange social activities. They also may help to arrange transportation to and from the center itself.

Who Can Benefit From Adult Day Care?

The following case study is an example of a senior who may need adult day care services, both for his own well being and that of his family caregivers: Paul is 69 years old and recently suffered a stroke. He needs some care and supervision so he lives with his son and daughter-in-law, David and Kira. However, because David and Kira both work, they need help to care for Paul during the day. They found a solution to their problem by having Kira drop off Paul at the local adult day care center in the morning, and having David pick him up when he gets off work in the evening. The center monitors Paul’s medications and offers him lunch, some physical therapy, and a chance to socialize with other seniors.

What Should I Look for in an Adult Day Care Center?

All states do not license and regulate adult day care centers. There may be a great deal of difference between individual centers; therefore it is important to learn more about each of the centers near you. You will probably want to visit the centers closest to you, and talk with the staff and other families that use the centers to determine if the facilities and programs available meet your individual needs. You may want to find out if your state has an Adult Day Care Association.

How Do I Pay for Adult Day Services?

Costs vary among adult day centers. Costs range from $25 a day to over $100 per day depending on the services offered, type of reimbursement, and geographic region. While an adult day care center is not usually covered by insurance of Medicare, some financial assistance may be available through a federal or state program (e.g., Medicaid, Older Americans Act, Veterans Administration).

Source: Eldercare.gov

Contact Pure Home Care Services at (586) 293-2457 today!  If you live in Warren or the surrounding area, we can help you care for your loved ones.

Adult day care services significantly reduce the stress levels of family caregivers of older adults with dementia, according to a team of Penn State and Virginia Tech researchers.

“Family members who care for dementia patients are susceptible to experiencing high levels of stress,” said Steven Zarit, professor and head, department of human development and family studies, Penn State. “One way of alleviating that stress is through the use of an adult day care center, which allows them a predictable break from caregiving responsibilities.”

Not only do caregivers benefit from using such services, but dementia patients also gain from the break. Zarit and his colleagues showed that dementia patients who attend adult day care centers have fewer behavior problems and sleep better at night.

“The changes we have seen are as large as you’d get with medication, but with no side effects,” he said.

Zarit and his team evaluated the stress levels of 150 caregivers by using a 24-hour daily diary to obrain obtain baseline information prior to the use of an adult day care service. After the caregivers began the use of an adult daycare, the researchers gathered data at various times over a two-month period. The caregivers recorded entries in their diaries, both on days when their relatives went to an adult day care service and on days when their relatives stayed home. The researchers reported their results online in the Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological and Social Sciences.

“In the diaries, we asked the caregivers to discuss their moods and the moods of their relatives, how agitated or restless their relatives were, and how many sleep disturbances their relatives had, among other topics,” said Zarit.

The team’s results revealed that caregivers generally reported greater levels of stress exposure prior to the use of an adult day care service and on days when their relatives did not attend adult day care programs. The team also found that behavior problems and poor sleep were more likely to occur on days when dementia patients remained at home.

Zarit and his colleagues are now studying the possible physiological effects these services can have on family caregivers. They are using stress markers, such as the stress hormone cortisol, to examine the body’s response to high-stress days when relatives with dementia stay home versus low-stress ones when relatives with dementia attend adult day care centers.

Notes:

Other Penn State researchers involved in the study include Kyungmin Kim, graduate student, human development and family studies; Elia Femia, research associate, human development and family studies; David Almeida, professor of human development and family studies, and Peter Molenaar, professor of human development and psychology.

Also part of the study was Jyoti Savla, assistant professor of human development and gerontology, Virginia Tech.

National Institute of Mental Health supported this work.

Source:
Sara LaJeunesse
Penn State

If you or your loved one would like more information about Adult Day Care services in Grosse Pointe, MI and surrounding areas, contact Pure Home Care services at (586) 293-2457.