Author

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

The holiday season is here. For some, plans are in motion to visit elderly family members. If it has been a while since you last visited, you might be shocked at how much they have aged, you may be concerned about their continued safety and well-being and motivated to do something about it.

First, try and remember the value of independence. Almost no one wants to be uprooted from his or her home. Getting help doesn’t always mean moving. Many people can remain safe in their home with minimal help.

There are often signs of trouble that usually show up in several areas. By being observant, you may be able to identify problems before they become a crisis.

While you are visiting, consider the following:

* Are medications a problem? According to a recent survey, one out of every three seniors said they had trouble taking their medications correctly. If someone takes four or more medications daily, they are at significant risk.

* Is there difficulty with daily living activities? A variety of health and safety equipment can easily be used in the home to make it better.

* Is the person depressed? Clinical depression is real and it affects thousands of people

Still, 92 percent of older Minnesotans who need assistance are taken care of by family members, community or church-based volunteers, or home health care agencies being paid out of pocket.

The percentage of families purchasing nonmedical home care has risen from 4 percent in 1988 to 27 percent in 2005, according to a survey done by the Minnesota Board on Aging.

Home health care numbers are expected to skyrocket by 2030, when Minnesota’s population over 65 will double, especially as nearly all current seniors and baby boomers say they want to stay in their home communities as long as possible and receive support and services there.

Baby boomers, often the ones who are helping their parents find care, are changing elder care. In a study this year by Ecumen, a Shoreview operator of nursing homes and provider of care for the elderly, only 1 percent of baby boomers would choose to live in a nursing home or assisted living. By a wide margin, they prefer to remain at home. With the percent of the U.S. population over 65 expected to double within the next 25 years, the impact on families will be huge.

It strikes every adult child who realizes that an elderly but independent parent who still lives at home needs additional help, more help than the child can offer. The adult child, often a daughter, typically helps out while managing her own family needs and a job.

We’re at the beginning of a sea change. Public policy isn’t meeting the need, and parents of baby boomers require services. Many people end up in nursing homes even if they don’t need that level of care. And they might not realize how much less it is for home health care.

The average rate for a home care aide is $24 an hour in the Twin Cities. (The highest hourly rate in the country is $30 in Rochester, Minn., according to a recent study by the MetLife Mature Market Institute.) At Aspirience, the rates range from $16-26 per hour for individualized and tailored Personal Care Services. Most home care is paid out of pocket or by long-term care insurance but is rarely covered by Medicare or Medicaid. Low-income or disabled families might qualify for some assistance under Minnesota’s Medical Waiver Program.

The point is to take note of the people you visit this holiday. They may need someone’s help.

It’s important to know, Aspirience Home Care can help you navigate your home care choices.

Author

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

Today marks the one year anniversary that I have been writing this newsletter. It seems like it went by so fast without any changes. However, there have been many changes. We have sponsored several conventions and meetings this past year, we’ve done presentations to local groups on the state of home care in general, the Veterans home in Minneapolis has gone through trauma with being fined by the state for lack of care, my mom passed away in May and the list goes on and on. Needless to say, there has been change that we have had to adapt to.

I wanted to write about the benefits of home care again in this ever changing world. November has been set aside as “National Home Care and National Hospice Month” to honor the men and women who have dedicated their lives to caring for others. A time for us to say thanks.

Traditionally delivered at patients’ homes throughout the centuries, home care is the oldest form of health care. It is also the newest.

Modern technology has evolved to the point where virtually anything that is available in a hospital can also be provided at home. And there is significant evidence that home care is less costly than other forms of care.

The National Association for Home Care & Hospice believes we as a society need to re-examine the reasons why home care is a viable, cost saving model of health care delivery. Here are just a few of the many reasons to consider home care:

1. Home care helps the elderly maintain their independence.

2. Home care prevents or postpones institutionalization. Few want to be placed in a nursing home unless it is the only choice.

3. Much scientific evidence indicates that patients heal more quickly at home.

4. Home care is safer. Some 20 percent of people who enter hospitals develop complications, such as infections.

5. Home care reduces stress.

6. Home care nurses and aides consider what they do a calling rather than a job.

7. In many of the rural or dense urban areas, home care is the only available form of health care.

8. Home care improves quality of life.

9. Home care is less expensive than other forms of care, such as hospitals and nursing homes.

10. The Internet will increasingly make it possible to diagnose, monitor, and treat illness at a distance, allowing patients to stay home and health professionals to save time.

Clearly there is evidence that taking care of someone at home is the best form of living and knowing there is a helping hand to walk you through that change is even better.

It’s important to know, Aspirience Home Care can help you with home care.

Author

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

I know there is a ‘National Month’ for just about everything but, November is touted as National Home Care Month by The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC). It is a time for all of us to commemorate the power of caring, both at home and in our local communities, by celebrating this event with gracious praise of those who care for others.

It is appropriate that we take a few minutes of our day to celebrate the nurses, therapists, aides, care givers and other providers who have chosen to use their lives to help give strength to the infirm, disabled and elderly people in our communities.

From the beginning of Aspirience, I have said often there is no work more nobler, fulfilling and rewarding that and no group in our society deserves more of our respect and admiration than those who care for others.

Back in 1999, the U.S. Supreme Courts’ Olmstead decision declared a Constitutional right for all Americans to be cared for in the least restrictive environment, their homes. The National Governors Association declared in 2004 that long term care is the greatest problem facing America and that home care is the best solution to the problem. In addition to these moves, the growth in the use of home care is being driven primarily by demographics, the graying of America, the advancement of technology, its cost effectiveness as compared with other forms of care and personal choice. Meaning that home care is all around us, everyday, everywhere.

Another fact is that home care is not just for the elderly but has viable importance to the young and middle-aged, especially chronically ill and disabled children.

Granted, 78 million Baby Boomers will soon hit retirement age, and a large percentage of them will begin to need help to remain independent in their own homes but, at this point, there is no Federal program that helps much with these needs, which also affects as many as 8 million more persons with disabilities who are younger than age 65. Home care needs are vast.

We believe that quality home care and hospice, a humane and cost effective alternative to institutionalization, is the right of all people. Home care provides important skilled nursing, therapy, supportive services and self care training and work in concert with the care provided by family members and friends. Home care encourages maximum independence of thought and functioning as well as the preservation of human dignity.

Home care is the preferred form of health care for millions of Americans as they go through their lives. Even when the end is near, most people appreciate the love and care which is so graciously given by the angels of hospice. Let us take time to celebrate the good that these special people do in the world.

It’s important to know, Aspirience Home Care can help you with your home care options by keeping your loved ones where they are most comfortable and safe, at home.

Author

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

A long-time provider of child daycare services will close Friday, Dec. 7.

Kids Care Center, 640 N. Main St., River Falls, WI, will go out of business on that date. Families using Kids Care are now being assisted in their efforts to find other daycare providers.

Author

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

I was talking with someone associated with the Muscular Dystrophy Association the other day and she was telling me about little Levi and how he is doing so well with his neuromuscular disease. I just had to share her story and what half-day home care has done for this little patient and his family.

Levi wasn’t suppose to walk, or eat without his feeding tube or live past his first birthday. All of which have happened, and with grace.

Levi turned 4 years old this past Saturday and is outliving and outpacing most expectations from doctors, nurses and even his own family.

He started out life in the Neuro-Intensive Care unit after he was born in Minot, ND. They were not aware that he was going to be born this way.

No one is supposed to be born this way.

No one really knew why he was not normal either. Doctors and specialists conducted tests for a year and a half. Something wasn’t right with him and all the family knew was that their little boy was fighting against an invisible illness.

They brought him home and had half-day, personal care assistant, home care, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s been like that for the past 4 years now.

After being sent to Rochester, Minnesota little Levi was diagnosed with a mitochrondial defect. But under that heading comes 50 other diseases that doctors were not able to pin-point.

Then after a second muscle biopsy another diagnosis of congenetal myopathy. Another condition with 50 or so diseases underneath its umbrella. It was not looking good as both diseases have no cure.

So that’s where he is. We have congenetal myopathy and a mitochrondial defect and they are both unclassified and the family has no idea which ones they are. But little Levi just keeps on improving and improving.

Now at age four with so much he wasn’t supposed to do, he’s doing so much. He has learned sign language to communicate, wheels himself around the house in his custom sized wheelchair and he plays baseball.

Levi may only be about the size of a one year old, he may only have the cognitive abilities of a two year old but he is not about to slow down.

His progress has been aided by the Muscular Dystrophy Association and a solid PCA home care provider, helping the family with resources and special needs.

It’s good to know, Aspirience Home Care can help you with home care like little Levi.