The Home Care Guide: Home Care Aide Options

In-home health care aides perform a variety of functions that do not require medical training and which service both long and short term needs. They can provide much needed respite care to help family members or other volunteers take a break from their caregiving responsibilities. Some of these tasks performed by a home health aide are:

• Cooking
• Cleaning
• Doing laundry
• Changing bed linens
• Helping with toileting and lifting
• Planning meals
• Assisting with medications
• Would care and bandaging
• Helping with dressing and showering
• Driving and transportation assistance
• Caring for children if a parent is disabled or too ill
• Shopping and running errands

Home health aides

Home health aides are generally supervised by a registered nurse or other medical or social services professional. In many cases, home health aides do not have specialized training. Some may have on-the-job training and others may have certification from the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, or a local hospital, community college or health care agency. The following people can perform home health aide services:

• Family members
• Friends
• Neighbors
• Members of a church or synagogue
• Volunteers through a religious or civic organization
• Agencies that supply certified home health care aides
• Check Care.com to find a listing of service providers in your area

All in all, you have many options to meet your family's home-health-aide needs. Work out a plan that meets your needs without overburdening one volunteer. Keep in mind that generally, home health aides do not have medical training. If your elderly loved one needs help with injections, a home health aide may not be qualified--be sure to ask specifically about their training and qualifications as they can vary.

Ronnie Friedland is an editor at Care.com. Previously she edited InterfaithFamily.com and JewishFamily.com. She has co-edited three books on parenting and interfaith family life.