If you or a loved one needs extra help with daily tasks, personal care assistance might be the right option. Personal care assistance is typically provided by an individual who will come to your room, apartment, or home to help with your daily needs, such as dressing, bathing, and feeding. The goal of this person is to help keep you safe and healthy while maintaining independence as much as possible. If you’re considering moving into assisted living community in Tampa, FL, it’s important to understand how personal care assistance really works. Here’s a quick overview:
What Is Personal Care Assistance?
Personal care assistance (sometimes referred to as PCA) is a non-medical person hired to help you with your daily activities. This person can be a family member or friend, but more often, it’s someone you hire yourself.
The PCA may be provided on an hourly basis with no set schedule, or they may work for a certain time every day and/or overnight if necessary. The facility will have staff members trained in handling medical issues such as emergencies; however, these team members are only sometimes qualified to provide personal care services such as bathing and dressing.
What Is Not Included In PAS?
While personal care assistance is a valuable service that helps to make life easier for golden-age adults, it’s important to understand what it does not include.
- Personal care services do not include non-medical services like housekeeping, laundry, and meals. While these are essential aspects of life in a senior-friendly independent living community, they are not included in personal care assistance. If you require help with these areas, speak with your advisor about alternatives available as part of your overall care plan.
- Personal care assistance does not include activities or social events offered by the community. The most common examples include exercise programs like walking groups or aerobics classes and trips to local restaurants or other attractions within driving distance of the community.
How Does A Community Know What Type Of Care You Need?
So how do you know what type of care you need? The answer is simple. Your retirement community’s care team works with you to identify what level of assistance you require, and then they design a personalized plan to ensure that your needs are met. The team will work with the resident, their family, their doctor, friends, and neighbors to help them better understand their current situation so that they can make educated decisions about their health needs moving forward. The best part about this process is that it doesn’t require anything more than an open mind on behalf of the individual seeking assistance.
The Benefits Of Personal Care Assistance Include:
- Reducing or eliminating the need for formal care. As you age, certain activities can become more challenging to do on your own. Having a personal assistant who helps with those tasks will allow you to spend more time doing what you enjoy and less time worrying about things beyond your control.
- Increasing independence and improving quality of life. Personal care assistants are trained to assist their clients with all aspects of living—including bathing and grooming, light housework, meal preparation, and transportation to doctor appointments—which enables them to remain independent longer than receiving other assistance (such as 24-hour monitoring from staff members). This also allows them to live fuller lives since they aren’t limited by having others worry about them all day long!
Conclusion
Personal care is a vital part of assisted living. The human touch makes life worth living for so many people and helps them keep their dignity. It can also save you money, allowing you to spend it on other things like entertainment or hobbies.
