Twenty Reasons for Home Care
by Val J. Halamandaris
There is no question in my mind that home care is the wave of the future.
There is growing public demand for health care services that are available
to the public in their own homes. The reasons for this trend are complex.
They have to do with tradition, with technology, and with cost effectiveness.
1. It is delivered at home. There are such positive feelings
that all of us associate with being home. Our home is our castle, our refuge
from the storm. When we are not feeling well, most of us ask to go home.
When we are feeling well, we enjoy the sanctity of our residences and the
joy of being with our loved ones.
2. Home care represents the best tradition in American health care.
Home health agencies were started as public agencies to seek out the poor
and the needy who otherwise would go without care. No one was turned away.
This is still true for most of America's home health agencies.
3. Home care keeps families together. There is no more
important social value. It is particularly important in times of illness.
4. Home care serves to keep the elderly in independence.
None of us wants to be totally dependent and helpless. With some assistance,
seniors can continue to function as viable members of society.
5. Home care prevents or postpones institutionalization.
None of us wants to be placed in a nursing home unless this is the only
place where we can obtain the 24-hour care that we need.
6. Home care promotes healing. There is scientific evidence
that patients heal more quickly at home.
7. Home care is safer. For all of its lifesaving potential,
statistics show that a hospital is a dangerous place. The risk of infection,
for example, is high. It is not uncommon for patients to develop new health
problems as a result of being hospitalized. These risks are eliminated when
care is given at home.
8. Home care allows a maximum amount of freedom for the individual.
A hospital, of necessity, is a regimented, regulated environment. The same
is true of a nursing home. Upon admission to either, an individual is required
to surrender a significant portion of his rights in the name of the common
good. Such sacrifices are not required at home.
9. Home care is a personalized care. Home care is tailored
to the needs of each individual. It is delivered on a one-to-one basis.
10. Home care, by definition, involves the individual and the family
in the care that is delivered. The patient and his family are taught
to participate in their health care. They are taught how to get well and
how to stay that way.
11. Home care reduces stress. Unlike most forms of health
care, which can increase anxiety and stress, home care has the opposite
effect.
12. Home care is the most effective form of health care.
There is very high consumer satisfaction associated with care delivered
in the home.
13. Home care is the most efficient form of health care.
By bringing health services home, the patient does not generate board and
room expenses. The patient and/or his family supply the food and tend to
the individual's other needs. Technology has now developed to the point
where almost any service that is available in a hospital can be offered
at home.
14. Home care is given by special people. By and large,
employees of home health agencies look at their work not as a job or profession
but as a calling. Home care workers are highly trained and seem to share
a certain reverence for life.
15. Home care is the only way to reach some people. Home
health care has its roots in the early 1900s when some method was needed
to provide care for the flood of immigrants who populated our major cities.
These individuals usually did not speak English, had little money, and did
not understand American medicine. The same conditions exist now to some
extent because of the new wave of immigrants and the large number of homeless
individuals who roam our streets.
16. There is little fraud and abuse associated with home care.
Other parts of the health care delivery system have been riddled with fraud
and charges of poor care. There have been few, if any, major scandals related
to home care.
17. Home care improves the quality of life. Home care helps
not only add years to life, but life to years. People receiving home care
get along better. It is a proven fact.
18. Home care is less expensive than other forms of care.
The evidence is overwhelming that home care is less expensive than other
forms of care. Home care costs only one tenth as much as hospitalization
and only one fourth as much as nursing home placement to deal with comparable
health problems.
19. Home care extends life. The US General Accounting Office
has established beyond doubt that those people receiving home care lived
longer and enjoyed living.
20. Home care is the preferred form of care, even for individuals
who are terminally ill. There is a growing public acceptance and
demand for hospice care, which is home care for individuals who are terminally
ill.
In short, home care is the oldest form of health care. Health care has been
traditionally given at home throughout the centuries. It is also the newest.
Modern technology has developed to the point where virtually anything that
is available in a hospital can be provided at home. There is significant
evidence that it is less costly than other forms of care, and that it is
the most satisfying form of health care available to the American public.
Little wonder that the public is demanding that it be made more available.
It is an idea whose time has come.
Reprinted from CARING Magazine, Vol. IV, No. 10 (October 1985).
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