Posts

Our Technology And Our Service Model

/in /by

At River Oaks, part of our mission is access and the convenience of working with families to get the very best care plans for their senior family members. When you think about how that works, it relies on some specific types of communications and models that save time and energy for everyone who’s involved in this collective process of decision-making.

With that in mind, let’s talk a little bit about the technology on our site that helps to keep everyone in the loop in an easy and convenient way.

The Family Portal

It’s common for a facility to have public information on the website. Then you click in and read about it. That’s part of the early “Web 1.0” that represented the Internet a few decades ago. But then, more became possible!

We’ve gone the extra step, now, in designing a family portal that is walled with a login, so that families themselves can get in and access information and interact with staff in a digital way. Our families do take advantage of this and like the convenience that it offers! Take a look at what you can access from home, and how that can help you to keep on top of caring for an elderly family member living here. 

Online Referrals

We also have a form online for online referrals that helps to streamline this kind of communication with people who are doing the research on senior care. Again, this is just a practical use of today’s “Web 2.0” model that offers users much more. But unfortunately, too many businesses don’t meet this need online. Then they have to do more by phone – and you know how that often goes. 

Job Applications

Another of the digital services you can find on the website is a job application resource for seeking talent from the community. That process, that talent development process, is important in building the best care model for nursing home residents and their families! We know that, and that’s why we’ve invested in this feature. 

Pennsylvania Waiver Services

Of course, there’s also the funding angle to work through, and an array of state waiver data to look at. There’s the Aging home and community-based services waiver and the Attendant Care/Act 150 Waiver, where a caregiver might be able to live in your home according to certain state criteria. There’s the Obra Waiver, a Home and Community Based Waiver program, for those with developmental physical disabilities; with the goal of achieving an independent lifestyle in a community. There’s also the Commcare Waiver – that’s a home and community-based services waiver for Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury.

Talk to us about all of this! We can help.

Tips For Taking Care of Elderly Loved Ones

/in /by

Making sure our loved ones are safe, happy and healthy is one of the most important things we can do for the people we care about as they get older. However, taking care of elderly loved ones can often present challenges as life gets increasingly busy. Navigating the stresses between school or work and making time to take care of loved ones can be uniquely difficult. It is important to remain sensitive to eldery loved ones under your care, however. Depending on others for day-to-day activities is difficult in of itself, and it’s vitally important that you continue handling elderly loved ones with patience, love and kindness.

 

Although taking care of elderly loved ones may seem like a daunting task, in practice you can easily adopt a few habits into your daily routine that will greatly help ensure your elderly loved ones remain safe and cared for. Additionally, you can also consider external support and help in taking care of your loved ones if you feel that you don’t have enough time to do so all on your own. Here are three fantastic tips for how you can take care of the elderly loved ones in your life as best as possible.

 

Visit Loved Ones Frequently

 

One of the most important things you can do when taking care of elderly loved ones is visiting often. As your loved ones get older, many daily activities can become difficult or even dangerous, such as home maintenance tasks or leaving the house. By visiting frequently, you can make sure that the home of your elderly loved ones is safe for them to live in, and help handle tasks such as cleaning or maintenance work. It’s also a good idea to make some routine checks during visits, such as ensuring that elderly loved ones have enough food, and that the mail and laundry aren’t piling up.

 

You can also help your elderly loved ones by simply spending time with them. While leaving the house alone may be difficult for older individuals, they still require the same social and emotional fulfillment that everyone needs. By engaging with elderly loved ones in conversation or activities, you can help them to meet their intellectual and emotional needs.

 

Check Their Medicine

 

While performing home and safety related checks on visits, another important thing you can do to help ensure the health and wellness of elderly individuals is keeping an eye on their medication. It may be difficult for your elderly loved one to visit the pharmacy and refill their prescriptions. It’s vitally important that elderly loved ones take the medicines that doctors have prescribed them, so be sure to regularly check that they still have enough and to refill their prescriptions if needed

 

One way you can help make taking necessary medications easier for your elderly loved ones is by purchasing a pillbox organizer for them, with labeled compartments for when they should take which pills. If your elderly loved one takes several medications, it’s also a good idea to check with a doctor to make sure their medicines can be stored together or taken together safely, and to remain mindful of possible side effects due to the interaction of different medications. 

 

Consider Hiring Help

 

Finally, if you’re finding it difficult to make up enough time to adequately care for your elderly loved one, it might be a good idea to consider hiring some help in order to make sure your elderly loved ones are safe and provided for. This can range from having a nurse check on your elderly loved one every week to hiring full time care, depending on the needs of your loved ones. 

 

Always ensure that you’re hiring help from a licensed and reputable agency. If you can’t afford to hire the help your loved one needs, look into different government programs or benefits that may help alleviate costs. By ensuring that your elderly loved one has the support and help they need, you can make sure they are well cared for.

Setting Up Care

/in /by

Any time you’re trying to provide for an elderly family member and looking for a place for them to live, there are a lot of considerations to be made. Some of these have to do with the care they’re getting throughout the day, and some have to do with longer-term issues like estate planning or dealing with a legacy property. Others, though, have to do with funding. How do you make sure that the family has the resources that they need to keep a family member in a home?

 

Consultation and Care

 

The short answer is that you can get excellent advice from professional teams who know what they’re doing when it comes to elder care.

 

At River Oaks Homecare, we sit down with families and talk about various funding possibilities, because we feel like this is an important part of how they make decisions. This includes a range of options that the family might not know about unless they’re closely involved in this line of work. So we help to explain – because that’s what we would want others to do for us if we were in that situation. So many things today need specialized attention, where people who are most in the know have to “translate” things  to others, to some extent. With that said, here’s some of what can help families. 

 

Medicaid/Medicare Waivers

 

There are a number of waiver options available in the state of Pennsylvania. We often go over these with families.

 

One is simply an “aging waiver.” This applies to many seniors and can be a source of funding for long-term care.

 

There is also an attentive care waiver for individuals with some disabilities.

 

Another disability-based waiver is the Obra home/community waiver that also provides for disabled persons to stay in a community. This can apply to residential home care or other types of long-term care.

 

A fourth type of waiver is a “Commcare waiver” that applies to individuals with traumatic brain injury.

 

Other Funding

 

If an elderly family member had served in the military at some point, they may be eligible for some types of veteran’s aid or assistance.

 

In other cases, the individual had selected some type of long-term care plan that could help pay the costs of this type of service.

 

Where a family does have to self-pay for part or all of the care, we can help with consulting and ideas about how to get the right solution for a particular family.

 

You can see a lot more on the website for how to make the decisions around care. Reach out and we will help you as much as we can. That’s part of our mission, and a commitment that we make to families. 

 

Ways You Can Get Paid for Taking Care of a Senior Loved One

Ways You Can Get Paid for Taking Care of a Senior Loved One

/in , /by

Approximately 65 million Americans serve as caregivers to disabled or ill relatives annually. Caring for a sick relative can be extremely stressful and time-consuming. In some cases, the amount of care your aging relative needs may require you to stop working a full-time job. One of the main problems you face when becoming a full-time caregiver to a family member is the loss of income.

Instead of allowing yourself to get overwhelmed due to a lack of income, you need to seek out ways to get paid for being a caregiver to a senior loved one. Luckily, there are a number of programs designed to help caregivers get money for the services they provide. The following are some of the ways you can get paid for taking care of an elderly loved one.

Check Out the Self-Directed Services Programs Offered By Medicaid

When trying to get money for your caregiving services, one of the first things you need to do is assess your elderly loved one’s eligibility for Medicaid. This government-run healthcare provider has a variety of programs that are designed to help both elderly individuals and their families. The self-directed programs offered by Medicaid allow elderly people who qualify to use the money they are allotted on a variety of pre-approved expenses.

One of the ways this money can be spent is on caregiving services. This means that your elderly loved one will be able to pay you for your time, which can minimize your financial burden. If you want to assess your elderly loved one’s eligibility for these programs, then the best place to start is at your local Medicaid office.

Does Your Employer Offer Paid Leave for Caregivers?

Before you quit your existing job to become a full-time caregiver for an ailing relative, you need to see if temporary paid leave is offered for people in your situation. A recent study found that over 16% of private companies in the United States offered this type of paid leave for their employees.

This is why you need to speak with your employer to find out more about the programs they may have in place. While the paid leave may be for an allotted amount of time, it will still provide you with some form of income during this transitional phase.

Is Your Aging Loved One Eligible For Veterans Aid?

The United States government has created numerous programs over the years to directly help aging veterans. One of these programs, known as the Veteran Directed Care Program, allows veterans to manage their own care. This means that they can use the money from this program to pay a relative that is acting as their caregiver. If your elderly loved one has served in a branch of the Armed Forces, then you need to apply for this program. Contacting your local Veterans Affairs office is the first step in submitting this application.

If you want to find out more about caregiving services and how much they cost, the team at River Oaks Homecare is here to help.

Helping your senior loved one use technology

/in /by

Have you ever sat in the cockpit of a plane? Or perhaps you can picture a movie scene of a pilot sitting in the chair, flicking on switches, turning knobs, preparing for take-off.

As an outsider, someone who isn’t a pilot, your reaction to looking at the dashboard of a plane is probably something of overwhelm. What do all those buttons, knobs, lights, and screens even mean? How can anyone make sense of this?!

If you ever were sat down in front of this dashboard and told to operate it, you probably wouldn’t even know where to begin.

Well, for many seniors, this is the experience of using a computer or tablet or smartphone. 

Technology is a wonderful tool. This year has shown us the amazing ways that the internet and all these gadgets can not only keep us connected but also keep us working and learning.

However, many seniors haven’t taken advantage of these benefits of technology because the learning curve is so steep. What is disheartening about this is that right now seniors are the population most in need of new ways to stay in touch with friends and family.

The outlook doesn’t have to be so bleak, however, because it is possible for seniors to learn how to use technology and thus stay in touch with the people who love them. 

If you have a senior in your life who lives alone or lives further away or who simply doesn’t want to go out or have visitors right now, here are tips for teaching them how to use technology.

  1. Keep it simple. 

While you may enjoy replying to emails, setting your fantasy lineup for the week, checking the weather, and crushing candy to pass time all on your phone, your senior loved one probably doesn’t need to do all those things. 

When you are selecting a device for them, keep it simple. It’s better to go with a device that does a core set of functionality well and is reliable over one that can do everything but is more complicated. The main things that a senior might want to do with a device are make video calls, receive pictures, listen to music, and play basic games. Making and receiving video calls is probably the most important, so focus on that and find a device that can use a software that is very straightforward.

  1. Don’t assume anything.

The number one mistake people make when teaching a senior to use technology is that they assume a base level of technical knowledge. For people who have used computers for years, or even their whole life, they forget that it’s not just “second nature”, it’s something they learned.

Even something as “basic” as how to use a mouse might need to be explained. Some other commonly mistaken “second nature” understandings about devices are:

  • Overlapping windows. When a new screen appears, it’s not always understood that other screens are below it.
  • Nested menus. The fact that there are more options listed under the word “File” might have to be explained.
  • Power off versus sleep mode. This is important if you want your senior to be able to receive calls, which means the device has to be on. Many seniors will assume they need to turn it all the way off to preserve battery life.
  • Storage. Be sure to explain how they can access and use different things on the device, such as pictures or word documents.

The key is to ask if they are understanding and to keep things in everyday terms. Analogies will be very helpful in explaining these new concepts.

  1. Be mindful of physical differences.

The thing about aging is that it affects both the mind and body. Many seniors struggle with using their fingers due to arthritis or other diseases. A touchscreen device may not be best because maybe their hand shakes or they don’t have enough strength to hold up their arm. A more traditional computer with a mouse might be better. 

Hearing is another area to consider. If they use hearing aids, be mindful of the levels and frequencies of sound coming from the device. Ask the senior if it sounds okay for them.

  1. Have patience.

Above all, it’s important to have patience. It might be frustrating to have to explain something multiple times and on multiple occasions. If you feel yourself getting agitated, just remember the plane’s dashboard and consider how long it would take you to understand that.

You are probably busy and have errands to run or work to do, but just remember the benefits of what you’re enabling them to do. You’re giving them access to a whole new world. Loneliness is not just an emotional concern, but it can also lead to other significant health issues in seniors. By empowering them to use technology, you are enriching their life and increasing their overall well-being.

If you have a senior living alone or far away, it’s likely that you feel concerned about their safety. To help reduce risks and increase safety in their living space, you can also use our Senior At-Home Safety Checklist. Our free comprehensive home safety checklist will help you systematically go through each area of the home to check for common hazards and make sure the proper safety measures are in place. 

Download this checklist once and use it over again periodically to make sure your loved one’s home stays as safe as possible.

5 Specialty Home Health Services That Can Help Seniors

/in /by

Most people know that it’s possible to get home health care services to help seniors with basic living assistance. As more Americans reach their golden years, home health care services are a popular way to keep older loved ones living at home instead of a managed care facility. However, many people have a limited view of how much can be done via home health care. By hiring high-trained professionals, River Oaks Home Care can assist in various situations. Here are five specialty health services that River Oaks Home Care can provide for seniors at home.

Alzheimer’s and Other Related Dementia Home Care

As adults get older, they may experience cognitive declines as a result of Alzheimer’s Disease or dementia. These conditions make it harder for seniors to live on their own independently, but these conditions don’t automatically make it necessary to use a nursing home or assisted living facility. During the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, patients can remain at home so long as they get some assistance with daily responsibilities. Home health aides from River Oaks Home Care can help seniors stay in their familiar environment as long as possible, which can improve their quality of life.

Hypertension/Stroke Recovery Home Care

Following a stroke, patients may have diminished cognitive and physical function that make care and assistance necessary. However, home health aides from places like River Oaks Home Care give stroke survivors more options for living independently at home. Having help from a home health aide can help seniors recover from a stroke with no minor or long-term effects. Trained home health aides can assist with physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and their companionship can help provide mental health support. Our aides can also help patients with hypertension (i.e., high blood pressure) manage their condition to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Heart Disease Home Care

Heart disease is a common problem for older adults, and River Oaks Home Care has specialty services that can help patients recovering from heart disease symptoms or the after-effects of treatment. Providing in-home assistance for cardiac disease patients can lead to better health outcomes. It’s estimated that around 25 percent of heart failure patients will be readmitted within 30 days. Many health experts believe that using home health services to ensure patients take their medication and eat appropriate meals can reduce readmission rates and significantly improve health and quality of life for the patient.

Cancer Recovery Home Care

Recovering from cancer treatments can take a toll on an individual, especially older adults. Many patients remain in the hospital or go to a managed care facility as they wait to recover. However, qualified home health aides from River Oaks Home Care can provide cancer patients with the same recovery assistance they would receive at another facility. Most people would prefer to remain in their home, rather than stay in the hospital, so these services benefit older adults recovering from cancer treatments.

Hospice/Palliative Support Home Care

Chronic disease and terminal illness are areas of care that are often handled in facilities such as hospitals and hospices. River Oaks Home Care can help patients during this time by providing hospice home health aids as well as aides trained to provide palliative care. Besides allowing patients to remain in their home environment, this kind of care can reduce the pain from chronic illness and alleviate some of the stresses that come with end-of-life care.

River Oaks Home Care has a staff of highly-trained professionals that can help seniors live more enjoyable lives in their home environment. Seniors maintain their freedom and independence, and family members can feel assured that their loved ones are getting personalized attention.

If you’re interested in learning more about River Oaks Home Care, you can send us a message online or request a free quote for the services you need.

Home Care Company that Cares

/in /by

At River Oaks Home Care, we are dedicated to serving America’s seniors in a caring way, and helping to provide affordable home care services to clients.

If you’re experienced in the home healthcare industry, you’ve probably seen some of the codes of conduct and mission statements that companies frequently advertise. When you see these, it’s a good thing – it means that someone has thought about articulating why we do what we do, and what standards we hold our businesses to, for the sake of the clients and their families.

The context is that it’s important to treat seniors with decency and respect. We understand that those who we serve are in many ways vulnerable to outside forces in their lives. With that in mind, we have created a mission exemplified by the word “caring” that shows how we approach our services:

You can see this in a page on our web site. These principles guide our business philosophy: comfort, affection, respect, integrity, nurturing and generosity.

How do we live this out in operating our home healthcare services?

It starts with staff recruiting and training. We on-board people who understand their mission and the care that our customers require. We then retain these talented individuals to keep our ship functioning well.

We appreciate our staff, and make sure that they know that, and create a work environment that is positive and encouraging. That means a lot to our employees, but it also means a lot to our families because it is this kind of going the extra mile that assures quality. When companies cut corners or fail to reward good work, bad things can happen!

We also adhere to the professional code of ethics of the industry, and always look at how to apply best practices in our business operations.

From non-medical home care to specific kinds of care like Alzheimer’s and dementia care, our home health professionals work on this firm mandate. We understand that we are an arm of the caregiving community that supports families. So we keep in touch with families and understand their needs – we listen to seniors and family members and put together dedicated plans for customer care. We take the time to listen, and do the extra work to safeguard our seniors – because they deserve it!

All of this is incredibly important in today’s world, where frightening stories of nursing home abuse and other problems abound. At River Oaks Home Care, we are dedicated to making sure that none of these types of headlines threaten the security and well-being of our families. Take a look at everything that we offer on our web site and call us with any questions – we look forward to meeting your family and coming up with solutions to adequately support an aging family member in their home.