After nearly a year living in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare is still facing an uphill battle as providers try to adapt to each day. For healthcare services that can be provided via telehealth, like therapy and wellness check-ups with a general practitioner, that adaptation may have been more straightforward. What happens in the case of services that can’t be done via web calls and video chat, like hospice and end-of-life care?
The hospice industry is trying to provide peace for their patients while navigating staff shortages, limited PPE and equipment, and isolation. Care providers must weigh the isolation of in-facility treatment versus in-home care. Because of uncertainty amid the pandemic, many families have made the decision to opt for in-home care.
According to Home Health Care News, “The concept of more care entering the home is something that providers in both the personal care and home health industries have been pushing for a while. Now, for better or for worse, COVID-19 has accelerated that migration.”
What is in-home care?
In-home hospice care and palliative care is care provided in the safety and comfort of a patient’s home. This typically means that patients receive care from someone in their family, as well as regular visits from members of a care team based on their specific needs. These visits can include routine care services like:
- Pain relief
- Help with daily activities
- Emotional support
- Providing equipment such as walkers and wheelchairs
- Nutritional counseling
- Oversight of medications
- Pain and symptom management
- Personal care
- Spiritual support
- Resource coordination
- Wound care
- Bereavement support
Home care can ease the burden of care for an ongoing condition and avoid hospitalization, all while providing safety and security in the comfort and familiarity of a patient’s home. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this care is increasingly important for families and patients. Due to visitor restrictions and safety protocols, many patients have been isolated from their family members and in some cases, those patients have passed away without their loved ones there with them.
In-home care allows for family members to remain accessible and present throughout a patient’s care and if their condition does worsen, they can be there to say goodbye.
Comfort and compassion with your hometown hospice choice
As COVID-19 continues to impact how we live, and die, we will continue to see shifts in care trends.
What doesn’t change, however, is the compassion and comfort that Hospice of Southwest Ohio and CareBridge Services seek to provide patients and their families. For many, in-home care provides a level of relief and companionship that they just wouldn’t have felt in a hospital.
The families with whom we have been blessed to care for have expressed gratitude for the in-home services they have received.
Sally, whose family has been with both CareBridge Services as well as Hospice of Southwest Ohio, said in-home care has been a huge relief.
“CareBridge has saved us,” said Sally. “CareBridge has just hopped right in and made our lives better in the midst of the hardest challenges. Having in-home nursing and the seamless transition to hospice has saved us.”
