Personal Care Assistance Needs Are Everywhere
Author:
Thomas D. Wiest
CEO, Aspirience Home Care
You know, there are Personal Care Assistance needs everywhere, all the time, for many different types of health needs…right in front of us and sometimes we don’t even know it.
A couple weekends ago we were at Mall of America with some relatives. We were talking about PCA services and someone asked how can you ‘see’ PCA needs everywhere? Considering the line of work we are in, we are probably a little more in-tune than most with Personal Care Assistance services but, it was not always like that, until it hit close to home for our family.
I asked her to look around at all the people and tell me what she sees through her eyes. As she struggled for a minute with the answer, I asked her to think of who COULD use some extra help or assistance with their daily activities routine – the things we take for granted.
Once she started to look around and understand, I mean really look at what people were doing or trying to do I asked her to think about how they might feel now. That is when she really became aware of the people around her and the needs they might have.
She ‘saw’ people with potential PCA needs everywhere…an elderly woman trying to navigate her walker from a store front to a mall bench, a child with Down Syndrome laughing as he ran through the food court, a younger man who was in a major accident with casts on both legs being pushed in a wheelchair, a young mental health patient being lead through the mall for a day of shopping excitement, an older gentleman sitting down attached to an oxygen tank and so on.
She became obviously aware the need is there.
All too often we close the door on this valuable service that is available to everyone because we do not always see the benefit it can bring. I asked, how did you quickly see so many people with this need? Her answer was easy…it was how they might feel without PCA service. That was a path she did not want to walk down. She wanted to aspire to feeling better about things than having to undertake the thoughts of a less than full life without the help of a PCA.
It’s important to know, that PCA needs are everywhere.