Female nurse checks patient's vital signs — Image taken from : www.aginginplace.org

Introduction

Around 15 percent of the world’s population, or an estimated 1 billion people, live with disabilities. In countries with life expectancies over 70 years, individuals spend on average about 8 years, or 11.5 percent of their life span, living with disabilities. In most of the developing countries with good health facilities and high life expectancy, people live longer, which leads in increasing numbers of people living with multiple chronic conditions, such as diabetes or dementia, and functional impairments, such as difficulty with the basics of life like mobility and managing one’s household. One of the greatest health care challenges facing in such a country is ensuring that older people with serious chronic illness and other maladies of aging can remain as independent as possible. Hence for such people, home health care is the best care a government or a family can provide.

What is Home health care? Definition

At its basic level, “home health care” means exactly what it sounds like – medical care provided in a patient’s home. It can also be defined as a wide range of health care services that can be given in your home for an illness or injury. Such care is usually less expensive, more convenient, and just as effective as the care you get in a hospital or skilled nursing facility (SNF). Such health care given at home can include broad care given by skilled medical professionals, including skilled nursing care, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy.

Facilities in such care may include occupational and physical therapy, speech therapy, and skilled nursing. It may involve helping older adults with activities of daily living, such as bathing, dressing, and eating. It can also include assistance with cooking, cleaning, other housekeeping, and monitoring one’s medication regimen. The goals of such services are to help individuals to improve function and live with greater independence; to promote the client’s optimal level of well-being; and to assist the patient to remain at home, avoiding hospitalization or admission to long-term care institutions.

Types

Health services that can be received at home can be limitless and different people with different situations need different care. Some of the care that is mostly included in the service are:

Doctor care
Nursing care
Physical, occupational, and/or speech therapy

Health care at home is mostly needed for old age people as they are more vulnerable, but it’s not mandatory that only old aged people need such kind of care, any people with chronic illness can be in need of such care. Such health care services allow people who require extra care to remain in their homes, reducing the burden otherwise shouldered by health care facilities, assisted living centers and nursing homes.

References

Introduction

What is Home health care? Definition

Types

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