Navigating the Differences Between Home Care Services
Home health, private duty care, palliative care, and hospice care are all available to address your loved one’s care needs at home. However, the names of these services are easy to mix up and clarity is essential when your loved one is in need. You deserve to know exactly what your loved one’s care plan includes, so you don’t add more stress to an already difficult situation.
Two misunderstandings come up often: the definitions of home health care and palliative care. It is tempting to think that home health refers to all forms of care at home and that palliative care is another name for home hospice care. We can provide some clarity around this confusion:
- Home health is a specific form of healthcare delivered in the home, which includes the need for skilled care, therapies, or social work as ordered by an allowed medical professional, along with other specific eligibility requirements. Home health care is not a catch-all for other home care options.
- Palliative care is pain and symptom management for a loved one’s condition or illness outside of the hospice setting.
Home Health Is Skilled Medical or Rehabilitative Care at Home
Home health meets your loved one’s needs at home when skilled medical or rehabilitative care is delivered through scheduled visits to their home. A nurse might provide wound care after a hospitalization, or a physical therapist might work with someone rebuilding strength after surgery.
Where to Learn More About Home Health Care Eligibility
Under Medicare rules, qualifying patients generally must need intermittent skilled care and meet the program’s homebound requirements.
Examples of Home Health Services From a Trusted Missouri and Kansas Provider
Home health can include skilled nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, medical social work, and home health aide services for people who qualify. As an example of what home health provides, review what Phoenix home health services include in Missouri and Kansas.
Palliative Care Is Not Another Name for Home Hospice Care
What Is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is included in a healthcare service called Comprehensive Disease Management, also known to some as chronic disease management. Eligible patients can have palliative care arranged to help provide for their comfort and relief from the challenging symptoms that often accompany chronic disease.
Palliative care is designed for people living with a serious illness and can begin as early as diagnosis. It can address symptoms, care goals, difficult medical decisions, and coordination while treatment intended to control or cure the illness continues.
Palliative Care Versus Hospice Care
Home hospice care benefits also include pain and symptom management services, but this is simply a part of hospice and is typically not referred to as palliative care. When an agency in Missouri or Kansas discusses palliative care, they are describing a component of Comprehensive Disease Management.
But when describing pain and symptom management in the hospice setting, this is just referred to as a part of this benefit. The hospice benefit is often referred to as physical, emotional, and spiritual care. Pain and symptom management is a part of meeting your loved one’s physical needs.
Palliative Care In Action Throughout Kansas and Missouri
To continue using Phoenix Home Care & Hospice as an example, this provider offers palliative care as part of Comprehensive Disease Management for qualifying children and adults with serious or medically complex conditions. The program pairs clients with a nurse navigator and medical social worker for guidance, resources, care coordination, and planning. Learn about what Comprehensive Disease Management includes.
A Day-to-Day Look at Home Hospice Care
During hospice care at home, your loved one will receive visits from a hospice team to address their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.
Hospice includes routine visits from the hospice team, including a hospice nurse, social worker, chaplain, community volunteers, bereavement counselors, and 24/7 on-call nursing for urgent needs.
During hospice care, you and your loved one can expect the following benefits:
- Comfort-focused nursing care. Nurses monitor symptoms, answer questions, and work with your loved one’s care plan to help manage pain and other concerns related to the terminal illness.
- Emotional and spiritual care. Social workers and chaplains are available to talk through difficult emotions, family concerns, practical needs, and spiritual questions according to your loved one’s wishes.
- Guidance for family caregivers. The hospice team can teach family members what to expect, explain changes they may notice, and give them a number to call when they are unsure what to do.
- Medications, supplies, and equipment related to hospice care. Depending on the plan of care, hospice may provide items such as medications for symptom management, medical supplies, and equipment needed for comfort at home.
- Help when needs become urgent. Families can contact the hospice team around the clock when symptoms change or an urgent concern comes up.
- Bereavement care for the family.Home hospice care offers grief resources and counseling for a minimum of 13 months after your loved one’s passing.
- Respite care for family caregivers. Short-term respite care may be available when a caregiver needs relief from exhaustion, with respite stays occurring in a long-term care facility setting.
- Companionship from trained volunteers. Hospice volunteers may spend time with patients and families to provide additional companionship and assistance.
- Additional comfort-focused services when appropriate. Physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and dietary counseling may be included when they are appropriate to the patient’s comfort and plan of care.
Begin With Your Loved One’s Current Needs
Give your loved one a New Beginning with care at home. Start by focusing on their immediate needs, but always keep in mind that as your loved one’s circumstances change, there is often a form of care that can help. Agencies typically offer a variety of home care and hospice options, allowing you to stay with the same provider across your loved one’s entire healthcare journey.
It is always helpful to know what is available, so you can address a change quickly and seamlessly, without getting caught up in learning terminology. You should never have to feel in the dark about how to advocate for your loved one, and knowing who to turn to for information and care can feel like a source of hope during a challenging time.
