Personal Care and Personal Care Services
What is Personal Care?
Personal care is the occupation of attending to the physical needs of elderly or infirm people who are disabled or otherwise unable to take care of themselves. This includes various tasks such as bathing, dressing, grooming, management of bodily functions, washing, toileting, cooking, and meals as well as advice, encouragement and emotional and psychological support.
Generally, attention and assistance required in connection with bodily functions such as dressing, washing, bathing or shaving, toileting, getting in or out of bed, eating, drinking, taking medication, and communicating. Audio and visual aid and assistance are also considered to be bodily functions.
There are services available to provide you with Personal Care services at home or at the facility centers. They provide you with the services to maintain your activities of daily living. The trained staff or Carers see you when you need help and assistance. It can either be the first thing in the morning or the last thing at night or in between, every day, year round.
Personal care services usually cover the following types of help and support in your own home:
Personal Hygiene – Washing/Showering/Bathing/Oral Hygiene
Carers are specially trained to treat you with dignity and respect and at all times be mindful of your modesty. They are fully aware of all your needs whether you are completely new to personal care services or have had used these services before, it is difficult to accept that you require help in this regard.
Toileting
Carers can assist you with all your toileting needs and may remain in the bathroom upon your request only, or when it is deemed absolutely necessary for your health and safety. They can transfer you from / to the toilet and taking care of any incontinence needs.
Dressing
When you get dressed and undressed, they will do the bending and fastening of buttons, zips and shoe laces, and make sure you are not in danger of trips or falls. They also even have all your clean clothes heating on the radiator ready for when you get out of the shower or bath.
Mobility and Transferring
The Carers can assist you to shift safely from one place to another with the appropriate moving aids, including hoisting, that mostly requires two carers. Whether it is to get in or out of the bed, the shower, or from a chair to your wheelchair.
Eating and Drinking
An important element of personal care services at home is the help to provide with eating and drinking. The Carers can prepare a fresh, healthy, nutritious meal for you from scratch, a tasty sandwich or simply heat up a prepared meal. They can keep an eye on the fridge so you will never be eating old, out-of-date food. They can also assist you with special requirements such as blending foods or thickening liquids, exactly how you like it (as medically directed).
Meal Preparation / Chef Services
Most Personal Care services have qualified Chefs on staff prepare healthy nutritious meals for you. In addition to their Chef qualification, the staff also have their Food Safety and other certifications. The Chefs can make up a variety of meals and pop them in the freezer, ready for you/parent or relative when you need them. Food can also be thickened and prepared as per medical directives and just how as you like them.
Prompt Medication
As you will know some medications need to be taken at the same time every day. The Carers can only remind you to take your medicine in time. They can only provide non-medical care in the home and are not permitted to administer medication to you.
Home Help Services
The Carers can assist you out with light household tasks such as washing up, vacuuming, floor washing, dusting, cleaning the bathroom, making beds, putting away your grocery shopping, ironing, and laundry care.
The ultimate goal of every Personal Care Service provider is to promote the principle of independent living and that means to assist you the way that you require, and not to take over or doing tasks that you would rather and can do yourself. They simply help you to stay in your own home healthy and active.
The personal care assistance or service can also be hired on visit basis from half an hour up to several hours per day as per your needs and requirement.
The ultimate goal of every Personal Care Service provider is to promote the principle of independent living and that means to assist you in the manner that you require, and not taking over and doing tasks that you would rather and can do yourself. They simply help you to stay in your own home healthy and active.
The personal care assistance or service can also be hired on visit basis from half an hour up to several hours per day as per your needs and requirement.
