SERVICES OFFERED FOR HOMECARE
Homecare Services
Services provided by Destiny Healthcare Services, Inc. are focused on companionship, homemaking and assisting the client with activities of daily living with a goal of enabling that individual to remain safely and comfortably in their own home. These services will provide assistance that is not medical in nature but will help them with the tasks that allow them live independently.
Our caregivers go through extensive background checks, a very meticulous screening process, thorough on-going training and regular supervision. We strive to create safe and comfortable environments for our clients, to deliver services that exceed expectations and to enrich the lives of those whose lives we touch.
Companionship Services
Companionship services include:
- providing companionship, friendship and emotional support;
- talking listening, sharing experiences;
- playing games/cards, reading to client etc.;
- helping keep clients in contact with family, friends and the outside world;
- providing transportation to medical appointments, grocery store and errands;
- accompanying clients to recreational and/or social events;
- assisting with plans for visits and outings;
- writing or typing letters/correspondence;
- organizing and reading mail;
- planning local trips and out-of-town travel with clients;
- teaching/performing meal planning and preparation;
- performing light housekeeping;
- accompanying client on walks;
- reminding client to start or finish meals; and,
- assisting with pet care.
Home Making Services
- Companionship services (see above)
- light housekeeping activities such as: making/changing beds; dusting; washing dishes; cleaning kitchen counters, cupboards and appliances, including oven, and stovetop burners; cleaning inside refrigerator; gathering up trash from inside the home and putting it out for pick up; cleaning bathroom fixtures; sweeping/vacuuming and scrubbing floors; light vacuuming; washing inside windows and cleaning blinds that are within reach without climbing;
- laundry and ironing;
- mending clothes;
- teaching/performing meal planning and preparation;
- cleaning up after meals;
- assisting with special, written diet;
- escorting or transporting clients to medical facilities, errands, shopping and outings;
- shopping for essential items on client’s behalf such as groceries and cleaning supplies;
- performing errands such as picking up medication and posting mail;
- providing companionship, friendship and emotional support;
- assisting clients with communication by writing or typing correspondence; and
- performing optional homemaker services, which are short-term, intermittent tasks necessary to maintain a clean, safe, healthy, and habitable home environment.
Personal Care Assistance Services
- Included in service:
General preventative skin care assistance, including application of non-medicated lotions and solutions not requiring a physician’s prescription and application of moisturizers or cosmetics as part of a daily skin care regime.
- Excluded from service:
Skin assistance when skin is broken or any chronic skin problems are active; skilled skin care, including wound care, dressing changes, application of prescription medications, skilled observation and reporting.
- Included in service:
The assistance of clients with ambulation, including clients who have been trained to use adaptive equipment for ambulation.
- Excluded from service:
The assistance of clients in the process of being trained to use adaptive equipment for ambulation; training of clients in the use of adaptive equipment for ambulation.
- Included in service:
Assistance of clients with bathing in tub, shower and bed.
- Excluded from service:
Assistance of clients with skilled skin care needs or skilled dressings that will need attention before, during, or after bathing; assistance of clients who cannot direct their care or are without someone who can advocate on their behalf.
- Included in service:
Assistance of clients with dressing with ordinary clothing, including assistance with clothing selection and the activities associated with proper fastening of outerwear and undergarments when needed; assistance with the application of support stockings of the type that can be purchased without a physician’s prescription.
- Excluded from service:
Assistance of clients with the application of an Ace bandage that can be purchased only with a physician’s prescription or a sequential compression device that can be purchased only with a physician’s prescription.
- Included in service:
Passive assistance with clients in exercise limited to the encouragement of normal bodily movement, as tolerated, on the part of the client and to encouragement with a prescribed exercise program.
- Excluded from service:
Assistance of clients with passive range of motion exercises.
- Included in service:
Feeding assistance with clients in situations when the client can independently swallow and can be positioned upright
- Excluded from service:
Assistance of clients with using a syringe or requiring tube feeding or intravenous nutrition; assistance when there is a high risk that the client may choke as a result of the feeding.
- Included in service:
Hair care assistance with clients with the maintenance and appearance of their hair; may include shampooing, drying, combing and styling hair.
- Excluded from service:
Hair care assistance of clients using medicated shampoo or shampoo that requires a physician’s prescription.
- Included in service:
Mouth care assistance of clients with denture care and basic oral hygiene, including oral suctioning
- Excluded from service:
Mouth care assistance of clients who are unconscious.
- Included in service:
Nail care assistance of clients with soaking of nails, pushing back cuticles without utensils and filing of nails.
- Excluded from service:
Nail care assistance of clients with nail trimming.
- Included in service:
Positioning assistance of clients when the client is able to identify to the home service worker, either verbally, non-verbally or through others, when the position needs to be changed; may include simple alignment in a bed, wheelchair or other furniture.
- Excluded from service:
Positioning assistance of clients when skilled skin care is not required in conjunction with the positioning.
- Included in service:
Shaving assistance of clients with an electric or safety razor.
- Excluded from service:
Shaving assistance of clients with a straight razor.
- Included in service:
Toileting assistance of clients in moving to and from the bathroom, assistance with bedpans, urinals and commodes; pericare; change clothing and pads of any kind used for the care of incontinence; empty or change external urine collection devices such as catheter bags or subrapubic catheter bags; empty ostomy bags and assistance with other client-directed ostomy care.
- Excluded from service:
Toileting assistance involved in the insertion and removal of catheters and the care of external catheters; ostomy care when there is need for skilled skincare or observation or reporting to a nurse; digital stimulation; insertion of suppositories; giving enemas.
- Included in service:
Assistance with transferring when the client has sufficient balance and strength to reliably stand and pivot and assist with the transfer to some extent; use of adaptive and safety equipment in transfers, including but not limited to wheel chairs, tub seats and grab bars, provided that the client is fully trained in the use of the equipment and can direct the transfer step by step; use of gait belts as a safety device providing the worker has been properly trained in their use; use of mechanical or electrical transfer devices, provided the worker has been trained in the use of the device, the client or client representative is able to direct the transfer step by step, and the worker has completed a competency evaluation in the use of the device.
- Excluded from service:
Transfer assistance when the client is unable to assist with the transfer.
- Included in service:
Medication reminding applies to all prescription and over-the-counter medications and includes inquiries as to whether medications were taken; verbal prompting to take medications; handing the appropriately marked medication minder container to the client; opening the appropriately marked medication minder container for the client if the client is physically unable to open the container; reporting to the supervisor any irregularities noted in the pre-selected medications, such as mediations taken too often or not often enough or not at the correct time as identified in the written instructions.
- Excluded from service:
Medication reminding when medications have not been pre-selected by the client, a family member, a nurse or a pharmacist and are not stored in a container such as a medication minder that is clearly marked as to the day and time of dosage.
- Included in service:
Respiratory care assistance is limited to temporarily removing and replacing a cannula or mask from the client’s face for the purposes of shaving or washing a client’s face; assistance can also include oral suctioning.
- Excluded from service:
All aspects of respiratory care are excluded from services: postural drainage; cupping; adjusting oxygen flow with in established parameters; nasal, endotracheal and tracheal suctioning; turning off or changing tanks.
