What to Look for in Senior Care

If you have never cared for an elderly loved one, you might think that anyone can provide home care services. However, if you have cared for a parent or grandparent, you know that high-quality care takes a unique mix of skill, patience, and experience. It’s an essential point for anyone hiring home care services: high-quality senior home care means experienced senior home care.

To most people, that means hiring a caregiver with a proven background in senior services. While important, this is not all you should look for in senior home care. It’s just as crucial that you’re choosing a qualified, well-respected agency. If the agency is a part of a more extensive network, you’ll also want to consider their experience as an organization.

Trusted & Proven Company-Level Reputation

America’s most trusted caregiving companies are well-established names with proven track records. Usually, the easiest way to find qualified senior home care is to look for companies with a history of high-quality care.

The best home care companies earn their reputations by sharing resources, knowledge, and experience at every level of their organization. They also set and enforce rigorous caregiving standards, giving clients and their families peace of mind.

Families choose Visiting Angels for skilled elder home care. As a company, Visiting Angels has more than 20 years of caregiving experience. Over the years, it has created a rigorous support network for its local offices, allowing them to share knowledge and expertise. Every office is provided with the systems, tools, and educational resources needed to deliver truly exceptional care.

Visiting Angels Newton/Canton has been a member of this franchise since 2004. Our excellent customer feedback has enabled us to win Best of Home Care from the national client satisfaction survey firm, Home Care Pulse five years in a row.

Local Knowledge and Experience

If you’re hiring a caregiver through a local home care agency, you should evaluate the agency carefully. How long have they been in business? How are their relationships with their clients? Which systems and standards do they use to ensure high-quality care?

An experienced senior care agency will have rigorous staffing and screening standards, reducing the risk that you’ll be assigned an unqualified or untrustworthy caregiver. They will also have systems in place to measure and monitor caregiver performance.

At the same time, a great agency can help you make sure that your loved one receives the right kind of care. Every senior who receives home care has unique, individual needs. If elder care services aren’t adequately tailored to these needs, their quality of life can suffer. An experienced senior home care agency will work with you to customize a plan to best support your loved one. They will also help you plan care around your loved one’s schedule and your family’s financial situation.

Knowledgeable, Compassionate Home Care Providers

Knowledgeable senior home care depends on skilled home care providers. Prior caregiving experience makes it easier for caregivers to juggle various tasks, attend to seniors’ physical and emotional needs, recognize early signs of age-related decline, and build a rapport with their clients. HHA and CNA certification also helps to ensure a standard level of competence.

At Visiting Angels Newton/Canton, we place tremendous value on caregiver knowledge. We’ve developed rigorous recruitment guidelines to find the most qualified, most knowledgeable, and most trustworthy caregivers possible.

To ensure you find the right fit, we also allow you to Select Your Caregiver®. This way, you can be sure that your loved one is matched with a home care provider who can meet their needs and who will have a complementary personality.

Are you looking for senior home care in Newton, Wellesley, Natick, Needham, Brookline, Chestnut Hill, Canton, Westwood, Dedham, Watertown, Stoughton, Roslindale, Norwood, or nearby towns for your loved one? Contact Visiting Angels Newton/Canton today to request a free consultation.

Physical vs. Mental Aging

As we grow older, our minds and bodies tend to age at different rates. Some of us slow down physically years before we lose any of our mental quickness. Others stay active well into old age but start to lose their memory earlier. The distinction between physical and cognitive aging can be an issue for friends and family of older adults. Because of this, recognizing and assessing physical and cognitive abilities is crucial in professional home health care.

How we distinguish between physical and mental aging has a significant effect on the way we treat our older loved ones. If we confuse symptoms of physical decline as signs of cognitive aging (or vice versa), we can inflict much unintentional damage. On the one hand, we might underestimate our loved ones’ abilities, treating them as less-than-capable adults. On the other, we might miss symptoms of a serious problem, like early-stage Alzheimer’s.
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An understanding of this distinction is equally vital for senior home care providers. Caregivers who don’t fully understand the difference between physical and mental decline are liable to provide their clients with substandard care. Meanwhile, caregivers who recognize the difference between aging bodies and aging minds can personalize care according to their clients’ needs.

Knowledgeable caregivers can also serve as a resource for families, providing advice and guidance about age-related concerns and challenges. This way, families are less likely to confuse signs of physical and cognitive decline, making it easier to care for their loved one.

Different Types of Aging Requires Different Types of Senior Care

There’s a significant distinction between physical aging and mental aging. While interrelated, these two types of aging often take place at different speeds. If someone is going through a severe physical decline, it doesn’t mean that they’re also experiencing cognitive decline. Likewise, if someone is declining mentally, they might remain physically healthy.

To illustrate, let’s look at a couple of hypothetical examples.
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Example 1:
Judy is a 72-year-old woman. Two years ago, her husband passed away, and Judy has been living alone. Recently, joint and back problems have made it impossible for Judy to get around without a walker. What’s more, she’s no longer able to perform simple chores and errands.

Given Judy’s physical state, some may assume that she’s also experiencing cognitive decline. However, thankfully, Judy’s family hired an experienced senior home care agency to provide her with care.

Judy’s caregiver not only offers physical assistance but also recognizes that Judy has complete cognitive function. During visits, Judy’s caregiver provides her with stimulation by playing cards with her, helping her browse the internet, and engaging in thoughtful conversation.

Example 2:
Mark is a 62-year-old man. Recently, Mark has shown signs of early/mid-stage Alzheimer's disease. He has become progressively forgetful, and he’s starting to mix up words and is having a hard time remembering people’s names. Occasionally, he gets confused by time and place.

An avid outdoorsman, Mark has enjoyed long walks outdoors and activities like birdwatching for much of his life. Mark’s family worries that physical activity is increasingly unsafe for him.

Luckily, Mark’s senior home care provider is knowledgeable and skilled in providing Alzheimer’s home care. Mark’s caregiver sees that he’s still physically fit and gets joy from these activities. After discussions with Mark’s family, his caregiver starts accompanying him for outside activities, giving Mark a positive outlet that he would not have if he were utterly homebound.
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In both cases, a senior home care provider can spot the difference between physical and mental aging. Having done so, they adapt their care services to the recipient’s needs, significantly improving the quality of care.

Common Mistaken Assumptions 

While you might think that cases like these are rare, inaccurate assumptions about aging are more common than you’d expect.

Compare the way people approach a 30-year-old in a wheelchair to an 80-year-old in the same situation. While most people will engage with the 30-year-old as an equal, a surprising number will talk to the 80-year-old as if they’re speaking to a child, which can be a profoundly humiliating and alienating experience for seniors, especially those who are cognitively functional.
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For another example, look at the way that many people treat individuals who have dementia. Many people assume that individuals with mid-stage or late-stage dementia are incapable of simple activities. Many of these individuals remain skilled in activities like painting, gardening, or baking, even as they lose some cognitive function. What’s more, these activities can prove sources of great happiness for those with dementia. A well-trained HHA or CNA-certified caregiver can provide appropriate dementia home care services for these seniors.

​Do you have an elderly loved one in need of senior home care in Wellesley, Natick or other cities and towns in the Greater Boston area? Contact Visiting Angels Newton/Canton today to schedule a free senior home care consultation!