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Home Care vs. Home Health Care: Top 3 Differences

When we reach a certain age, there comes a time in every human’s life where the body simply cannot perform basic physical activities as efficiently as it used to.

This can be extremely frustrating, and even depressing at times, as we struggle to keep up with the same level of physical activity that was once second nature, as well as dealing with a sinking feeling we are becoming a hassle to those around us. 

This is a natural part of life that comes from having acquired so many experiences. Relying on more physically-able family members to help us out in navigating our day to day lives starts to become harder and even dangerous.

And although is something where shame should not be felt, and it is important to recognize the beauty of having our loved ones look after us, in the ways we looked after our own elders when we were younger, there are better alternatives. 

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Licensed medical professionals and health care nurses are ready to provide home health care services: wound care, personal care, medication reminders, pain management, meal preparation, and more, depending on the agency or individuals you hire. Keep reading to learn what this is about!

Home Health Care Services 

An agency that offers home care is able to provide experienced and knowledgeable staff members. This will help you live your life with less stress as this person will be taking care of you at all times, allowing you to be calm without any worry concerning your safety or that of your loved ones. 

However, life has so many moving parts that against their strongest desires, the people we love are just not able to cover every facet of the home health services we might need. 

Reasons To Hire Home Health Care Services

Be it because of busy work schedules, other family obligations or long distances, there are instances where family members don’t have all the needed tools to provide impaired adults with the medical care they need.  

In these instances, it’s incredibly important that the person with a disability is able to receive the help they need from professionals. And fortunately for them, there are many options in place today that can ease the weight on family members’ shoulders. 

Giving a disabled loved one someone who can care for their own personal care needs will ensure you can focus on your day-to-day more freely while ensuring they are in good hands. A simple way to create this is by hiring a personal caregiver.

When navigating the available options, if you are wondering what a personal caregiver can be, for what might be the most suitable home care alternative, or what they can do to help you and your loved ones, we will encounter the terms Home Care and Home Health Care used to signify possible home health aides. 

Although at first glance they can be read as identical and synonymical, there are key differences that can help us determine which one is the most appropriate to our needs. 

Home Care: Take The Weight Off Your Shoulders

Most senior adults prefer to stay home rather than move to a skilled nursing facility, but because of all the factors we have already talked about, this can be impossible and even dangerous if proper help is not there when needed. Home health aides are people that are able to help with daily living activities. 

This includes things like grooming, bathing and dressing, therapeutic exercises for speech, as well as physical and occupational. Meal planning and preparation can take a huge load out of everyone’s shoulders and is one of the activities a home health aide can perform. 

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Home health aides are often the unsung heroes of the healthcare world and their services go far beyond just providing transportation; they can help with housekeeping, laundry, and a laundry list of other essential tasks that can be incredibly helpful when caring for an aging or disabled person. 

It’s important to spread the word so that people understand how much invaluable assistance these professionals provide.

What Are Home Health Aides?

Home health aides are invaluable in helping older adults with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, and eating when physical capabilities have been compromised due to aging. 

In addition, many home health service providers require these aides to complete certifications in order to be eligible for government funded programs such as Medicaid. 

With their specialized training and expertise, home health aides can make life much easier for those who are unable to do the mundane tasks on their own.

Despite the fact that home care assistants are not required to have any formal healthcare qualifications, they provide invaluable services and should be recognised as a distinct profession in comparison to Home Health Care Aides. 

This is the main difference between the two which sets them apart, offering different levels of care and medical support throughout.

Home Health Care: Medical Assistance at Home

Home Health Care Aides are registered skilled nursing professionals with specialized training that allows them to provide a more comprehensive level of medical care to elderly patients.

They are skilled medical professionals, capable in providing specialized treatments, wound care, personal care, medication reminders and management, and other medical support related services that senior citizens need in order to maintain their quality of life. 

Medical professionals are increasingly relying on advanced AI powered technology to assist them with a variety of tasks, including medication administration via injection or IV, ordering of laboratory tests, recommendation of dietary habits and therapeutic physical exercises, extraction of blood samples, and more.

The critical expertise and timely response of Home Health Careprofessionals can make a huge difference in the successful treatment and recovery from physical injuries.

Benefits of Hiring Home Health Care

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Their trained medical assessments provide the insight and direction required non medical, to ensure that a patient is receiving the best possible care in order to obtain full mobility and restore their quality of life.

Falls or excessive effort can be prevented with the help of a trained individual who is able to identify potential risk factors in order to safeguard the patient. This proactive approach can ultimately end up saving lives, as it will prevent dangerous or life-threatening situations from arising. 

Furthermore, it’s important to note that it is also beneficial for reducing healthcare costs and improving overall quality of care.

Degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s Syndrome, Alzheimer’s or dementia are never to be taken lightly and should always be attended to with great care.

A professional healthcare provider is there to:

To supervise the development of the disease and make necessary recommendations for its treatment, and bring great peace of mind to the affected and their family. Knowing that the situation is being properly managed is priceless. 

With the right medical care and support, many sufferers of these terrible diseases can go on to lead long, healthy lives. Unfortunately, not all of us are blessed with the experience or knowledge to be able to effectively help our dear family and friends cope with life-threatening diseases. 

These situations can be challenging and stressful to manage, but with a little bit of understanding and patience we can try our best to support our loved ones in any way possible. 

Reaching out and connecting to someone who is better educated or experienced in offering assistance and guidance to the people we care about can often be the most significant and productive way of both demonstrating our compassion for them and helping them through what can feel like a difficult personal journey.

But What Are the Top 3 Differences?

  1. One requires medical training, the other one doesn’t.

Home Health Care is an industry that provides trained medical personnel with a new way of providing care to patients. They are trained nurses and assisted living professionals that are equipped to handle many difficult situations and emergencies that a Home Care Aide is not.

Because of their specialized nature, it’s better to think about Home Health Care when we have someone with severe mobility impairments, deteriorating memory or other mental faculties, painful and long-term diseases, among other conditions where the best intentions are not enough to give our loved ones the care they deserve

  1. One mainly helps with daily chores. The other is a medical professional.

A Home Care Aide is someone that will intimately interact in home care, and get to know the person they are caring for. They help with mundane tasks that our elderly or impaired loved ones are just no able to hable by themselves anymore. Making more effort than necessary in these daily tasks can cause injuries to people that should not be handling them by themselves.

  1. One needs to be prescribed, the other doesn’t. 

To hire the services of a Home Health Care assistant they have to be authorized by a doctor. On the other hand, a Home Care Aide can be contracted privately without the doctor’s intervention. 

Home Care vs. Home Health Care? 

Virtual receptionists help Home Care Agencies.

Assisted Living, or Home Health Services, provide our loved ones with the care they need. And even though this is a presential task that professional people perform right in the place with you, we have the pleasure to collaborate with many Home Health Care agencies by providing all the remote services they need, such as virtual receptionists, staffing coordinators and more. 

If you own a business in the Health Industry and want excellent bilingual professionals handling every difficult or monotone task for your company, Freelance Latin America provides you with the greatest data base of Latin American professionals to help you.

You can take a look at our article How Medical Virtual Receptionists Help Home Care Agencies to learn more about this topic!

Book a meeting with our Business Manager to share your project with us clicking here, and let us do all the rest!

Andrea Corona