WEYBURN – Home Care services are sometimes under-valued, but provide a very valuable service to the community, Weyburn Rotary members heard in a presentation to the club on Thursday.
Sandy Johnson, a case manager and social worker with Home Care, and Stacy Labrecque, a registered nurse, spoke about what Home Care provides to residents and why some people might need or want their services.
Summarizing what Home Care is all about, Johnson said, “We provide acute, palliative and supportive care to allow people to stay in their home – that is our goal. A lot of times we’re dealing with that, helping people to stay in their homes.”
She noted that Home Care does not try to take over things a client can do for themselves, or to replace care or support already being given to a person.
What might happen, said Johnson, is a family member or members might gather at the home of a loved one, such as at Christmas time, and find that they are not being properly looked after or can’t manage things at home very well, and they may call Home Care to go in and help.
“It’s something that clients have to agree to. They may choose to live in unsafe conditions, but if they’re competent, they’re allowed to do that,” explained Johnson. “We try to teach people self-care, and we may encourage them to participate in this service and anything we’re doing for them.”
She added that people are not always aware of what is in the community available to them, whether it’s Home Care services, or a service like “Comforts of Home”, or assistance through Sask Abilities for Independent Living, which can help provide equipment for people if they can’t afford it.
Life Line is another service that is available to people, including a new feature where a person’s medication is put into a disc which will ring when it’s time to take it. If the medication isn’t taken, the service will text a caregiver to let them know.
“That’s a big thing, with medication management for seniors,” said Johnson. “I’m excited about that aspect of Life Line.”
She said she’s qualified to go in and do an assessment of a client for Home Care, but “we don’t go in and tell a client what they need to do. We collaborate with them to decide what to do.”
They are assisted by home help aides, or continuing care aides, who Johnson called her “angels”, as they will go in to do personal care with a client.
“They do bathing, dressing, some grooming, and a little bit of foot care. We don’t provide foot care generally, but maybe with a bath. We have qualified nurses to do foot care for those people who are home-bound,” said Johnson.
Meals on Wheels, which Rotary members volunteer to deliver once a week, is also provided through Home Care.
“It’s awesome you guys are doing that with volunteering. We don’t have a lot of volunteer involvement right now, as COVID kind of squashed that. We are hoping we can get that going in the community again,” said Johnson.
She noted that some people think that Home Care is free, but only certain aspects of it are provided free, such as nursing.
According to the fee schedule provided by Home Care, there is no fee for services provided by a nurse, physical therapist or occupational therapist, and there is no fee for services given to palliative clients who are assessed as end stage, or require acute care management of palliative symptoms.
There is also no fee for personal care services for short-term acute care clients for up to two weeks, including clients with mental health issues, in order to assist with an early discharge from the hospital.
“A lot of seniors in the older generation are scared to get Home Care because they don’t think they can afford it. If a client doesn’t want services, we’ll try to find a way. We’ll find out what’s going on, and ask, ‘are you safe?’, especially if we see the family is struggling,” said Johnson.
Labrecque noted she’s been nursing for about 14-15 years now, and admitted when she first got into Home Care, she was hesitant about going into this service, as it wasn’t in a hospital or on the floor of a facility.
She has now found, however, “working in the community is my love, it’s my passion. I love going to work every day and helping people from the community stay independent in their home for as long as they can.”
She noted that as a nurse, they are in a position to get to know their clients very well, which isn’t always the case in a hospital where the patient is discharged as soon as possible.
They do a lot of wound care, such as post-surgical home care, she added, but noted, “Post-operative wounds can sometimes be complicated.”
For a number of her services, a physician’s referral is needed, but she noted that they work well with most physicians in the community.
They see a lot of catheter use and management as clients are at home taking care of this rather than having a stay in the hospital.
She will also sit down with the family when a person is discharged from a hospital, to go over such things as medication management, and as a nurse she can help them make the transition back to home.
Palliative care has become a large focus of Home Care also, which they began to see during COVID as families were reluctant to send a loved one into a facility with restricted visiting privileges.
“We’re really proud of the work we do for the community,” said Labrecque.
Asked what area they cover, Johnson said they go south as far as Oungre, up to Lang and Francis, in a circle around Weyburn.
