Does your loved one need hospice care or home health care? You may not fully understand the differences between these two services. That’s to be expected if you have never known anyone or visited anyone in hospice. Suncrest Home Health and Hospice provides hospice care and home health care to residents of the Austin area.
What Is Home Health Care?
Hospice patients may receive home health care, but these two services are not one in the same.
Home health care refers to a wide variety of services provided to people — usually seniors, but not always — in their homes. These often include personal care services such as help with bathing, dressing, meal prep, grooming and reminders to take medications. Home health aides may also do light housekeeping such as dishes, laundry, vacuuming, dusting and running errands.
Home health care is intended to allow seniors to remain in their homes for longer, avoiding having to move to assisted living or a nursing home. Clients are almost always happier remaining in their homes than they are when they have to move to a facility.
Additionally, facilitating patient care in the home is much less expensive than assisted living or nursing home care.
What Is Hospice Care?
Hospice care is end-of-life care. Patients who enter hospice are usually seriously ill. In fact, in order to enter hospice, a patient must be expected to live six months or less.
Hospice care can be delivered either at home or in a facility. Those receiving hospice care at home may also receive the services of a home health aide. If patients are unable to ambulate, the home health aide gives them a sponge bath, brushes their hair, changes any dressings, turns them in bed, changes the sheets, applies lotion to the skin and provides other services to make patients comfortable. If the patient is able to eat or drink, the home health aide may feed them or give beverages as well. All this is done under the supervision of the hospice nurse, who creates the plan of care for the patient.
Certified nursing assistants perform the same duties for patients in hospice facilities.
The services home health aides and certified nursing assistants provide are similar, regardless of the location or the level of care the patient requires. Their purpose is to keep patients clean and comfortable.
Suncrest Home Health and Hospice of Austin
While home health care is often a good solution for ailing elders, it must be deemed safe for them to continue living on their own with assistance from a home health aide. Getting your loved one an evaluation will help you make the right decision about care for them.
For more information about hospice care for patients in the Austin area, contact Suncrest Home Health and Hospice. We can set up a meeting with one of our social workers or hospice nurses to answer your questions.
