Respite Care Archives - Comfort Keepers

In-Home Care in Philadelphia, PA and other Surrounding Areas

Comfort Keepers is able to offer unique care services that are designed to meet the specific and customized needs of each senior.

We understand that the need of one client is different from the other. Each Comfort Keeper office is able to offer a complete range of personal care services and companionship to help seniors maintain an independent living lifestyle at their home.

Personal Care Services

Bathing, Grooming, and Hygiene

We understand the importance of appearance, and our comfort caregivers can help seniors feel positive about their looks by helping them with their grooming activities, providing hygiene assistance and helping them bathe. Taking a bath is not just about cleaning your body; it also stimulates circulation in the body and provides an opportunity to relax. Comfort Keepers are trained to minimize any discomfort or embarrassment that an elder may experience.

Mobility Assistance

We make sure we let your elders enjoy maximum mobility and activity as possible keeping in mind their health, age, and abilities. Staying active and mobile has several advantages for elders, including enhancing digestion capabilities, increasing stamina, and energy, better sleep, decreasing blood pressure and a stronger heart. Our Comfort Keepers encourage and offer reminders to the seniors about their prescribed daily exercises, even accompanying them on a short walk in some cases.

Transferring and Positioning

Posture and positioning are important to maintain proper health and safety. Our staff is trained to help move and place clients in proper postures. Having the correct posture helps eliminate pressure on the body, relieves one from the stiffening and weakening of muscles, and improves digestion and breathing.

Toileting and Incontinence Care

Incontinence and Toileting needs are very personal to people. Elders may need assistance in both aspects and our Comfort Keepers work to maintain the dignity and self-esteem of seniors and other adult clients when they help them satisfy their natural needs. Our caregivers are trained to lessen the embarrassment that elders may feel as a result.

Feeding and Special Diet

Old age brings with it certain difficulties. Some elders may be unable to feed themselves independently and may require help feeding themselves. This can be hard to understand. Our Comfort Keepers understand this and they make an extra effort to ensure that mealtime becomes more enjoyable for elders. They not only provide assistance by feeding elders, but also make sure the elder stays on the prescribed diet to control diabetes and a variety of other medical conditions.

In-Home Companionship

Conversation and Companionship

Our Comfort Keepers provide clients with an outlet to share their emotions and friendship. For instance, lending them an ear or have conversations with when they sit down for a meal. Frequent social contacts such as this are known to enhance a senior’s happiness, health, and quality of life.

Meal Preparation

Shopping for groceries and creating a well-balanced meal can be tough for people as they get older. Comfort Keepers are able to prepare and serve delicious, hot and nutritious meals based on the preferences of the client and their nutritional and prescription needs.

Laundry

Our Comfort Keepers are well-versed in multiple aspects of the provision of care, and laundry is just one of them. They will help seniors with their laundry, regardless of whether they are doing the laundry at their homes or at a laundry facility, and taking on the task of ironing, cleaning, drying and folding of clothes. The services provided are kept specific to the client’s needs.

Light Housekeeping

At Comfort Keepers, we understand that our services are able to take up and complete most of the domestic tasks. Seniors who want to keep themselves involved in these house chores are welcomed since it helps make them feel needed and useful. Common domestic housekeeping tasks that can be taken up include cleaning of kitchens and bathrooms, dusting, sweeping, vacuuming and mopping of floors. However, our services are limited to in-house work and we don’t offer outdoor cleaning or maintenance.

Grocery Shopping/Errands

Repeated and long distance mobility can be a problem for seniors. For this, Comfort Keepers is able to help relieve them off this burden. Our care providers will shop for prescriptions and groceries and will perform other outdoor errands such as going to the post office, etc.. Clients are given the option of staying at home or accompanying the caregiver for them to stay engaged and active. They can also use the coupons and vouchers provided.

Incidental Transportation

Our comfort Keepers allow seniors and elders to roam around freely, providing them with incidental transportation. They can use this facility to go shopping, attend functions, go for appointments, take up other activities, and go to the salon, the barbershop, or any other place of their choice. Having a senior out and about is good for their spirit, mind and body.

Medication Reminders

Our Comfort Keepers are trained in providing care and comfort as well as reminding seniors to take medications. They can help clients stay on their prescribed medications by reminding them of their duties. They can read medicine labels, assist them with opening medication containers, tell them the exact dose, etc.

24-Hour Care

We understand that certain elders may require care for a longer period of time than others. Our Comfort Keepers offer flexible care timings that can stretch from just a few hours a week to full time, in-home care which lasts 24 hours a day. To ensure quality performance, a team of caregivers coordinates with one another during the 24 hour care to share care giving responsibilities while clients enjoy peace of mind.

Respite Care in Philadelphia, PA and other surrounding areas

Trusted respite care allows family caregivers the chance to rest, relax and focus on other important matters, allowing them to recharge while another professional takes on their role for the time being.

Not everyone is ready to outsource the caregiving of their elders to professionals. Some feel that caregiving within a family can be both a rewarding and bonding experience. However, even in the best of situations, family caregivers can reach a point of exhaustion when they are in need of a rest, especially if they have a job and kids to juggle each day.

An emotionally-drained caregiver does not have the same quality and level of commitment to the role, and that can affect the seniors. To step in for family caregivers when they feel tired, Comfort Keepers provides respite care at home. This is a temporary relief for family caregivers to give timely respite to the people giving their all to take care of their loved ones.

What is Respite Care?

Respite Care is referred to as a Short Break in some countries. These are planned breaks afforded to families and other unpaid caregivers who are tasked with taking care of a senior round the year so that they can rest or enjoy time outside of the home. This helps maintain a healthy relationship between the primary caregiver and the senior.

How Comfort Keepers can help?

With respite care, you can leave the house without having to worry about the one you care about, knowing well that they are safe and in good hands. This lets the primary caregiver have time to:

Attend a meeting related to the elder
Visit a dentist, a doctor or make any other routine appointment
Do shopping
Relaxing and winding down

At Comfort Keepers, we recognize the need for respite services to be tailored to your specific needs. These services can be scheduled for as little as a few hours and may stretch to as much a time as you want. Respite care is usually designed to act as a stop-gap solution to let you enjoy your life and attend other important activities as well as letting a professional take care of your elder. If you feel the need for respite care, contact us and we would be happy to help, provide additional information and even schedule a free in-home consultation.

Interactive Caregiving in Philadelphia, PA and the Surrounding Areas

We have a team of dedicated caregivers who are well-versed in the ideas and skills of caregiving. Our Comfort Keepers are special people who are able to transform day-to-day caregiving into insightful conversations, activities that can enrich the elder person’s life emotionally, socially, mentally, physically and even keep them engaged so that they can enjoy their life to the fullest.

How does it make a Difference?

We know that through Interactive Caregiving, we can contribute to a healthier, more purposeful and longer life for the seniors. In fact, there are several studies that point towards the health benefits of active living later in one’s lifetime.

We develop Interactive Caregiving plans for every senior client based on his/her personality, abilities, health and unique interests. A typical plan will have activities such as:

Dancing to a tune
Paying regular visits to the senior center
Engaging with civic groups and working with them
Helping the caregiver with household chores
Enjoying crafts, puzzles, and hobbies
Taking a trip to the church, the cinema or a shopping center
Cooking food
Contributing to discussions
Talking about things that make them happy
Taking a stroll around the neighborhood.

We at Comfort Keepers are able to provide the same personal care, homemaker services and companionship that helps seniors live a happy life like other in-home care providers do. What sets us apart is how, using our interactive caregiving approach, we are able to raise a senior’s quality of life to a level most in–home care providers can only dream about.

What we get from it is a happy, content and comfortable loved one enjoying their life!

Dementia Care and Alzheimer’s Care in Philadelphia, PA and the surrounding areas

We understand the specific sets of skills needed to care for people with Alzheimer’s and dementia and we are experts in providing that care.

Caring for a loved one who has dementia or Alzheimer’s can be hard. It is an emotionally and physically draining procedure and we are well-aware and understand the challenges which might be faced by family caregivers. We are experts at providing proper care to such patients and we can help ease your burden.

Our Comfort Keepers offices nationwide are able to provide customized care for clients who can experience symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Our personnel is specially trained and able to help with this.

What is Dementia and Alzheimer’s Care?

A decline in a person’s mental ability which leads to memory loss or makes them unable to complete familiar tasks which makes it serious enough to interfere with and hinder a person’s daily life is known as dementia. A serious and common form of Dementia is referred to as Alzheimer’s disease. It accounts for 50-80% of the problems in dementia patients. Our care givers care for these people by helping them focus on their remaining strengths and abilities; they also help clients perform tasks which they require assistance in doing.

How Comfort Keepers Can Help

Our staff, which is specially trained to deal with patients of dementia and Alzheimer’s, will:

Provide bathing, meals and other household chore assistance
Be available to the family and client as they continue to experience a change in their behavior as is the case with dementia.
Set up a safe environment so that the client does not injure himelf/herself
Allow the client to take part in activities that engage them and help stimulate their senses, such as music.

Our Services are customized according to the needs of our clients. We are able to take into account the health and ability of clients when determining the home care we need to provide. Our Comfort Keepers are well-versed in providing Alzheimer’s and dementia care for only a few hours in a week to full time as well if need be. For 24 hour shifts, a team of care givers will coordinate with one another to interchange care-giving responsibilities.

The Journey to Recover at Home: Health Care in Philadelphia, PA

Find out more about our in-home healthcare and how it can help patients enjoy a comfortable and better recovery.

Once a person has been discharged from hospital, the road to recovery is only half complete. The time immediately after a hospital stay is critical to their health and recovery. Multiple studies in the past have shown that lack of proper care and support following serious hospitalization or surgery can lead to a readmission or slower-paced recovery.

Typically, family members can volunteer to take care of their loved ones once they have been discharged from the hospital, but providing proper care can be arduous. These people are ill-prepared and untrained to meet the physical and emotional challenges presented by taking care of such people. This is why Comfort Keepers offers different services to ease their transition back to home.

What is Transitioning Care?

Transitioning from a hospital back to the home can be tricky. We at Comfort Keepers specialize in helping you make the transition smooth. Some of the services we provide in this regard include:

Providing transportation for follow up visits
Coordination and communication with medical staff
Monitoring proper implementation of the care plan to aid the recovery process
Providing family and friends time to relax and regain a peace of mind
Assisting with household activities, such a running errands, meal preparation, housekeeping, etc.

How Comfort Keepers Can Help

In addition to our wide range of general care services for patients who have only recently been discharged from hospitals, we are also able to customize our services to fulfill the health care needs, services and medical needs of the client. Some of the special medical needs that we can help with are:

Pneumonia
Myocardial infraction
Congestive heart failure

Let us take you through the recovery process so that you and your loved one emerge from the process healthier, happier and better. We let you and your loved one enjoy professional help and peace of mind. We are available to help anytime, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week!

End of Life and Palliative Care in Philadelphia, PA and the Surrounding Areas

We are ready to provide comfortable end of life care and assistance for your loved one during a difficult time.

To know that your loved one has a limited time to survive is nothing short of an unbearable torment. When your family member has been diagnosed with a disease which limits their life expectancy, he/she will have a strong desire to see out the rest of the days in the comfort of their home and surrounded by their family and friends. However, providing end of life care to someone who has a limited time left to live can be both physically exhausting and emotionally challenging.

We at Comfort Keepers support your loved ones and you by working with a hospice agency, palliative care provider or medical practitioner to fully meet the family’s needs. We will assist you in fulfilling the needs of the client as well as helping around the house, ensuring that you and the families cope with the situation well, both emotionally and morally, through our support.

How Comfort Keepers Can Help

Our primary goal through end of life care is to provide comfort and care to your loved ones which will allow them to make the most of the time they spend together. We are there to help by offering to:

Do laundry as need be
Prepare food
Get the house cleaned
Dress and bathe and provide toileting assistance to the loved one
Give the loved one company while you can cope with the pain alone.

Our services don’t end with the passing of a loved one. We are there to provide assistance and help to the families so that they can cope with the loss as well. Comfort Keepers are able to assist families with certain tasks, including moving belongings, organizing their personal items and in some cases, providing a shoulder to cry on if family members are in need of someone to talk to about their grief.

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Choosing the Best In-Home Care Provider

Once you’ve made the decision to seek in-home care, the next step is to interview potential providers.

The following checklist of important questions will provide you with answers you should know before selecting an in-home care provider.

How long has your company been in business?
What is the candidate selection process for caregivers at your company?
- Have candidates been thoroughly background checked?
- Are candidates periodically tested for substance abuse?
- Are candidates bonded and insured?
How are caregivers supervised?
What types of training do your caregivers receive?
- Safety?
- Medical or first-aid?
Can I meet the caregiver ahead of time?
What should I do if your caregiver doesn’t show up?
- Do you provide a back-up?
Who should I contact if I have concerns about the quality of care or other issues?
- 24/7 telephone support?
Is there a minimum number of hours for in-home care?
What senior care services does your company offer?
- Light housekeeping?
- Bathing?
- Grooming and incontinence care?
- Transportation?
Do you have a clear list of services that you provide, along with rates and fees?
How quickly can you start service?

Understanding In-Home Care

In-home care is something that families don’t typically discuss until they find themselves in need of assistance, in unfamiliar territory, uncertain what services are available and what those services actually entail. It’s important to realize that in-home care can provide a viable, safe alternative for many seniors and their families.

Unlike assisted living or nursing home care, professional caregivers come into the home of the person receiving the care services. They provide a wide range of services that includes transportation, meal preparation, light housekeeping and other activities of daily living, that enable the elderly to maintain independence and remain at home as long as possible.
In-home caregivers provide non-medical services; however, they may work in tandem with skilled care professionals—such as after a hospital stay—to provide the required level of care.
Families can schedule caregivers for the number of hours of assistance needed—ranging from a few hours to full-time, 24-hour care.
Some in-home care providers also offer technology solutions, such as emergency alert systems seniors can use to call for help should they fall or become ill, fall detectors or electronic reminders to take medication. These solutions provide supplementary care assistance to families when the in-home caregiver is not present.

How to Have the Senior Care Conversation

Sooner or later we will all need a little help, and typically, your family will give it. The eventual need for senior care is not an easy topic to bring up, or discussion to have, but the decision can be a lot less painful when it’s well-informed, unhurried and made together by senior and family.

Generally, it is better to have the discussion with an elder long before it is imperative, with clear minds and hearts. Seniors do not want to be a burden, and family caregivers want what is best for them. In this way, seniors are enlisted in the decision-making process and offering input instead of feeling as though they have lost control of their lives.

It is important to avoid making an elder feel as though they are being conspired against or “ganged up on.” Better to keep the number of participants small, initially. As the conversation progresses, the point should be made that the senior is dearly loved—what happens in the future will affect the whole family. The conversation can then be opened up to include additional family members.

Be informed. Your aging loved one will have questions. You should have answers. Gather as much information ahead of time. Don’t hesitate to call Comfort Keepers. Our staff is available to answer your questions and help you all along the way.

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