Traditional Arrangement

Traditional Arrangement

Care in the house provided by a spouse or a child is the most regular form of long-term care in this country. Around 73% of all long term care is provided in the home environment in general by caregivers who receive no compensation for their work.

The management of care or hands-on care from informal caregivers is limited to actions that don't have need of a skilled backdrop. Lifting, bathing, dressing, diapering, toileting and helping with walking can be a challenge to family caregivers because they don't have the appropriate tools or are not skilled in this area. Or the children of elderly care-recipients may have difficulty dealing with cleaning messy bottoms or bathing their parents. Another problem may be handling wayward behavior from dementia or depression.

Because of this, a number of caregivers bring in paid providers to help with lifting, walking, bathing, incontinence, toileting, dressing and care.

Another home care arrangement is for family members, who live far away or who are engaged in a fulltime job, to become supervisors and coordinators of care and to offer only limited, personal, hands-on care. These people may appoint a care manager to perform on their behalf.

Home care is more or less always provided in the home of the receiver or the home of a family member or friend. Home care may under certain circumstances be offered in other settings such as group homes or independent retirement communities. Below are some of the activities provided by or supervised by family caregivers.

• Help out with walking, lifting and bathing

• Assist with using the bathroom and with incontinence

• Providing pain management

• Preventing risky behavior and preventing wandering

• Providing comfort and assurance or arranging for professional counseling

• Feeding

• Answering the telephone

• Making arrangements for therapy, meeting medical needs and doctors' appointments

• Providing meals

• Maintaining the house

• Shopping and running household tasks

• Providing transportation

• Administering medications

• Managing money and paying bills

• Doing the laundry

• Looking after personal hygiene and personal grooming

• Writing letters or notes

• Making repairs to the home, maintaining a yard and removing snow

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