Understanding and Accessing Homecare

Home is an important place. It’s where most seniors want and need to be. But sometimes it takes the whole community or “village” – a village of caregivers, family, friends and healthcare professionals – to care for seniors at home. Allegheny Health Network’s Healthcare@Home program can be an important part of that village as you strive to keep your loved one at home.

Home might be the house Mom or Dad has lived in for 45 years or it might be the personal care home in your neighborhood where Aunt Mary has settled into for her senior years. It might be an assisted living facility you moved Grandpa into to assure he is safe and kept watch over when you can’t be there. Home can be a house down the street or across the country or any other senior living community where your loved one resides.

Utilizing skilled home healthcare and hospice services, like those provided by Allegheny Health Network’s Healthcare@Home program, can give caregivers peace of mind, knowing their loved ones are receiving the extra care and support from their village in their home, wherever that may be. And skilled home health is a completely covered Medicare Part A benefit, and also covered by many other managed care insurances for seniors who are considered “homebound."

Most seniors suffer from at least one chronic disease, such as heart failure, diabetes, or COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Allegheny Health Network’s Healthcare@Home program offers specialized disease management programs that can help teach seniors to manage and often improve their condition and reduce avoidable hospitalizations.

Did you know our skilled home health can provide mental health services for things like depression, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia?

Skilled home health can also offer speech therapy, dietitian services, social workers and occupational therapists to help with those difficult activities of daily living and connecting seniors with needed resources.

Did you know putting someone on hospice services does not mean they are going to die tomorrow or next week? Hospice can provide comfort measures and quality of life for seniors with life-limiting illnesses where the normal progression of their disease is six months to end of life. Hospice means living near end of life. It not only provides physical, but also spiritual and emotional support for patients and their caregivers and family members.

Tap into the resources of your village. Know that skilled, professional help is available to help keep your loved one home sweet home.

For more information, please call 1-800-381-8080.