Caring for a Loved One with Mobility Issues

When your loved one’s mobility decreases, he or she may suddenly need help doing a lot of the things that are necessary for daily living. The thought of lifting and assisting your loved one may be daunting, but it will become easier with time. Here are some tips for caring for a loved one with reduced mobility.

Respecting Your Loved One’s Independence
A decrease in mobility is a major loss for most people. Your loved one wants and needs to have as much control over his or her life as possible. Before you attempt to assist your loved one, be careful to explain what has to be done and why.

Staying Safe During Transfers
Transfers can be dangerous. You can make the process much safer by planning ahead, waiting for help if your loved one is too heavy, and following safety guidelines. These include keeping your legs slightly apart and your back straight while holding your loved one near to own body during the move, turning your whole body rather than just you waist, and wearing skid-proof shoes. To initiate the transfer, face your loved one while gently gripping beneath each arm. If you must carry your loved one, put one arm around him or her and under an armpit, then put the other under the knees.

Using a Wheelchair
A wheelchair can allow your loved one to continue many activities he or she loves, such as visiting, shopping, enjoying the outdoors, and attending religious services. However, getting into and out of the wheelchair must be done safely.

Before transferring your loved one to a wheelchair, adjust the height so that the rider’s thighs are at a 90 degree angle to his or her torso. Place a pad in the seat for comfort. Before you assist your loved one into the chair, lock the brakes and adjust the footrests to the side. Then use the general safety guidelines for transfers to help your loved one into the chair. Once your loved one is in the chair, move his or her feet apart to about shoulder width.

Always turn the chair backwards before going up stairs or over curbs or bumps. Whenever possible, make sure your loved one can see where you are going. Casually mention that you are approaching bumps, turns, stairs, ramps, or lifts. When it is time to get back into bed, use the safety guidelines for transfers again, this time gently lifting your loved one from the wheelchair.

Reach out for Help
Even the most dedicated caregiver needs help now and then. Enlist other family members to help care for your loved ones when needed, or ask for a helping hand from a professional such as Visiting Angels in Las Vegas.

How to Pick an Agency for In-Home Senior Care

When a loved one needs healthcare due to old age or disability, home care is often preferred over nursing homes or other facilities. The right home care agency can provide 24-hour monitoring, feeding, drug administration, flexibility and more. Here's a guide to choosing a dependable agency for in-home care.

Speak with Management

Look into agencies to see how they hire and manage their caregivers. How do they screen job applicants? Do they insure all workers and offer worker's compensation in case their caregivers are injured on your property? Also find out whether an agency's caregivers are permanent employees or contract workers. In many cases, employees offer more support and a higher level of care to patients.

Analyze Services

Caregivers perform different types of services, so it's important to choose an agency that offers the services you need. In addition to managers, speak with employees to find out what skills they have. Make sure that they are compatible with yourself and the patient for the comfort of everyone.

Verify Licenses and Reputation

Home care often involves professional medical procedures that should only be performed by professionals. Before hiring an agency, verify that their caregivers are licensed and accredited according to the laws in your area. In addition, look at online reviews and speak with others in your area to confirm that the agency is reputable.

Look for Training

Although educational programs teach caregivers many important skills, agencies often train their caregivers to perform tasks to their own specifications. Combined with regular testing, this may ensure that the agency's caregivers offer a consistently high level of service.

Discuss Emergency Procedures

Emergencies may arise during home care, making contingency training essential for caregivers. If your regular caregiver is ever unable to work for any reason, will the agency be able to provide a replacement? By looking into this before you hire an agency, you'll be less likely to be faced with finding another agency on a moment's notice.

Ask About Background Checks

You should be able to trust any caregiver in your home. If you stick to agencies that require references and background checks for their personnel, you'll be more likely to end up with a caregiver you can count on.

Looking into home care agencies with the above considerations in mind will better ensure that you are satisfied with the caregiver who works in your home.

Loving Life Over 60 with Visiting Angels in Las Vegas

Channel 99 - Sun City Anthem - Talks with Visiting Angels in Las Vegas, NV.

Fleurette:  Welcome to Loving Life Over 60. Today we are visiting with
Visiting Angels, the owner and President Michael DiAsio and his wife, who
is the co-owner and Administrator, Jackie DiAsio. Well, thank you for
visiting us. Tell us, how long has Visiting Angels been in Southern Nevada?

Jackie:     We're a non-medical home care agency. We are completing our
                 12th year in business. We have about 225 employees. We
                 assist roughly about 450 clients per day.

Fleurette:  Now how much does Visiting Angels' service cost?

Michael:    The highest price is $20 an hour. If they use us for real long
                 days or shifts, which start at 12 hours a day and go up to
                 24 hours a day, the price per hour goes all the way down to
                 $16.

Fleurette:  Tell us, why would a family want to use Visiting Angels instead
                 of assisted living or a nursing home?

Michael:    Most of our services and our real goal is to keep people in
                 their home. We feel they're more comfortable, they're
                 happier, they're around their surroundings, they're
                 probably more apt to have family and friends come and visit
                 them. To be quite honest with you, it's really more
                 affordable for our typical client than going into a
                 community such as that.

Fleurette:  Now how does Visiting Angels hire and screen its employees?

Jackie:     We ask that our employees have at least one year experience.
                 That could be taking care of a loved one or actually
                 working in a nursing home setting or at an agency. We also
                 do a background check, that would be an FBI and state
                 background check on every employee. They also have to have
                 a two-step TB test, first aid and CPR training, and we
                 offer a 16 hour training program here free of charge for
                 all of our employees before they go out into the field.

Fleurette:  Tell me, is Visiting Angels looking for more employees?

Jackie:     We are always looking for new employees. We're always looking.

Michael:    Males and females.

Fleurette:  Oh yes.

Michael:    Yeah. We have both. We have needs for both. We have many more
                 females, but we're also looking for male caregivers.

Fleurette:  What makes Visiting Angels unique from others in this industry?

Michael:    Well, I would say it's our experience. Not just here at the
                 office. We've been here for 12 years. But it's our
                 caregivers' experience. Our typical employee, or typical
                 caregiver that is, has been with us three or four years. We
                 know these people. They've been providing care for the
                 community here for years. We know what they're capable of.
                 We get tons of compliments on them. I think that's what
                 separates us from many of the others in this industry or
                 even the private caregivers. Our experience. They've been
                 trained. If one of them gets up in the morning and their
                 car doesn't work, we have 250 employees, and we get
                 somebody else over there. They're very responsible and
                 reliable. They make the difference in our agency.

Fleurette:  How long is the training for the employees?

Michael:    It's two days. It's right here. We have a full-time trainer.
                 It's every Tuesday and Wednesday. It's eight hours. Then
                 every year we're required to bring them back through for
                 another eight hours of training here at our community. At
                 that point, even initially, but also when we do the eight
                 hours of in-service training, we spend a lot of time also
                 working on how to assist somebody who has memory loss
                 issues, whether it be dementia or Alzheimer's. We actually
                 bring in the management from the Alzheimer's Association to
                 come in here and train our caregivers on how to assist
                 somebody with that condition.

Visiting Angels
9436 W Lake Mead Blvd, Ste 11F
Las Vegas, NV  89134
(702) 562-3322
http://www.visitingangels.com/vegas/home