10 Ways to Maximise Your Home Care Visit with a Care Professional

In Singapore, demand for home care services have steadily increased in the last decade. Home nursing and home medical visits for instance, have increased from 35,294 in 2010 to 96, 578 in 2019. This should come as no surprise—with the growing societal awareness on wellness and health, more people are becoming acquainted with the convenience, flexibility, and peace of mind that home care services provide for caregivers and care recipients.

As caregivers, hiring a care professional ensures high quality care for our loved ones and also allows us to recharge ourselves and practice self-care. It also has the added benefit of giving our loved ones an additional opportunity to socialise with others and build meaningful relationships in their everyday lives, whether they’re coping with a long-term medical condition, or simply recovering from a temporary illness or injury.

Homage Care Professionals are professionally trained and carefully selected to provide trusted care that you can depend on. We ensure that our Homage Care Pros are locals—Singapore citizens or PRs—to ensure that there are no communication or cultural barriers to understanding our seniors who are Homage’s frequent care recipients.

Hiring a Homage Care Pro is as easy as clicking a button, but knowing how to maximise your home care visit with a Home Care Pro may not be as intuitive for many of us.

Here at Homage, we’ve prepared a simple 10-step guide for you to follow and maximise your visit with our Homage Care Professional. 

Step 1: Book an In-Person Care Assessment 

The first step to making the most out of your home care visit with our Homage Care Pro is, of course, to book an in-person care assessment. Doing so allows our Homage Care Pro to assess your loved one’s exact preferences and living conditions. Our Homage Care Pro will then be able to ascertain if additional resources or care should be catered to satisfy your loved one’s needs. They can also then enter your home well-prepared, and able to tailor their services accordingly to your loved one’s needs and preferences.

There’s no need at all to stress about an in-person care assessment. During the assessment, our Homage Care Pro is simply getting to know you and your loved ones better so as to start building a great relationship with you. 

Step 2: Make Your Needs Known

To ensure that your home care visit with our Homage Care Pro is a successful and enjoyable experience for all, it is imperative that you make your needs known. Tell our Homage Care Pro about your loved ones daily routines and activities. Be sure to let them know the essential care and medical regimes that your loved one requires during the home care visit. You should also give detailed descriptions of your loved one’s likes and dislikes, as well as preferred engagement activities. 

For example, does your loved one love to sing? Then, perhaps our Homage Care Pro can arrange for a mini karaoke session with them in the comfort of your home. Or does your loved one have a favourite sweet dessert? Our Homage Care Pro could help prepare a healthy version that they can enjoy during the home care visit.

Making your needs known helps build rapport between your loved ones and our Homage Care Pro and is the start towards an enjoyable and meaningful relationship.

Step 3: Ensure That Care Professional Has Easy Access To Things 

Home care visits all have a time limit, so it’s wise to make sure that the time our Homage Care Pro spends with your loved one is maximised fully. One way of doing so is to ensure that our Homage Care Pro has easy access to things.

This should be rather intuitive—simply note down the specific caregiving activities that you normally engage in with your loved ones and think about what items you will need to ensure are available for our Homage Care Pro to carry them out too.

For example, does your loved one require regular medication? Having an organised pill box with clearly labelled medication makes it easy for our Homage Care Pro to ensure that your loved one consumes their medication on time and without any mix-ups.

If your loved one loves board games or other fun activities like chess or backgammon, make sure that the games are located in plain sight in your house, or hand them over to our Homage Care Pro when they arrive for your loved one’s home care visit. That way, they can get started on playing and building up their relationship straight away.

Following these tips makes sure that time is not wasted on locating materials during your home care visit with our Homage Care Pro and that they get to do more meaningful and engaging activities with your loved ones.

Step 4: Organise Fun Outings with Elderly

Home care doesn’t need to be restricted to the confines of your house. Our Homage Care Pro can bring your loved ones out to a variety of environments and provide companionship while taking care of any needs that may arise. 

Fun outings that our Homage Care Pro can bring your loved one on include foodie journeys to a nearby hawker centre, or a leisurely walk at the nearest park for fresh air and exercise.

Where and what your loved one can do is really up to your imagination. Simply let our Homage Care Pro know in advance, and we’ll be able to help you organise hassle-free fun outings with your loved one’s medical needs fully taken care of.

Step 5: Have an Engaging Care Plan – Exercise Plans and Creative Sessions 

To really make your home care visit a success and maximise your loved one’s time with our Homage Care Pro, you can also request for a Homage Care Plan in advance. Homage will provide a detailed care plan for your loved one, with dedicated sessions for exercise and creative expression.

A typical engaging care plan for your loved one could look something like this: 

Visit type: Personal Care

10.00am – Staying active

11.00am – Light body massage

11.30am – Personal Care & Hygiene

12.00pm – Companionship & Engagement Activities

1.00pm – Meal arrangement/ NG tube Feeding, Medication Reminder

1.30pm – Personal Care & Hygiene

Visit type: Physiotherapy (PT)

10.00am – 45 – 60 minutes depending on your loved ones capability to cope with the exercises

Personal care visits and Physiotherapy visits are interspersed within a month and you can set and choose their frequency to your loved one’s preferences. 

You should speak to our Homage Care Pro beforehand to figure out and plan together the best possible care plan for your loved one.

Step 6: Request for a Regular Homage Care Pro

Relationships aren’t built overnight. You should request a regular Homage Care Pro to help your loved one build up rapport and trust with our Homage Care Pro. Having a regular Homage Care Pro increases the familiarity your loved one has with us, and encourages them to relax while our Homage Care Pro is with them. Beyond professional and quality caregiving, we also hope that our Homage Care Pro can make a meaningful difference in your loved one’s life as a trusted person. Caregiving, after all, demands the human touch and here at Homage, we want our Homage Care Pros to have the best possible relationship with their care recipients, to make it a meaningful experience for all.

So, if your loved one enjoys the company of our Homage Care Pro, don’t hesitate to request for them to be your regular Care Pro. 

Step 7: Communicate with your Homage Care Pro

At Homage, we’re dedicated to providing the best caregiving experience for you and your loved ones. To make your home care visit a successful and enjoyable experience for all, you should provide feedback to our Homage Care Pro after each home care visit so that we can tailor our caregiving plan for your loved one accordingly. Not every care plan will be instantly perfect, and it can be hard for your loved one to warm up to our Homage Care Pro in the initial few home care visits.

It is therefore important to communicate with your Homage Care Pro about your feedback regarding home care visits so that steps taken to rectify any dissatisfaction are done so in a timely and appropriate fashion.

Step 8: Talk to Your Loved One Beforehand 

A good majority of care recipients who require home care visits may not be familiar with the concept or have not experienced it before. Sometimes, this could lead to a perceived loss of personal autonomy or a sense of alienation and disconnect with our Homage Care Pro as they could be seen as a stranger in the house.

To allay your loved one’s fears, it’s important to talk to your loved ones beforehand and have an honest conversation about their feelings. Managing expectations and involving your loved ones in the planning of their care plan and caregiving experience can help empower them and make them feel seen and heard through this process.

Involving your loved one in the process will also likely lead to more fruitful home care visits as they arguably know themselves best when it comes to the kind of caregiving experience that they would like to receive. 

Step 9: Keep Track of Your Loved One’s Health

It’s important to keep track of your loved one’s health, especially if they have a long-term medical condition or injury. Sometimes there might be changes to their medication regime as recommended by their doctor, or their physiotherapy needs might change following a medical procedure. You should take note of these changes and make sure that you update our Homage Care Pro accordingly so that our care plan for your loved one can be adjusted accordingly.

Should there be any major changes to your loved one’s health, our Homage Care Pros are also available to step in and help you figure out your loved one’s exact caregiving needs.

Step 10: Get in Touch with Homage Today

Now that you’re ready to maximise your home care visit with our Homage Care Pro, the natural last step is, of course, to get in touch with Homage today.

Simply reach out to us here to find out more about home care with Homage and to start arranging for your home care assessment with our Homage Care Pros.

Provide the best care to your loved one today! Fill up the form below for a free consultation with our Care Advisory team.