Companionship For Seniors
Uplifting care and friendship for your loved one
At Medica In-Home Care®, we understand the incredible effects that socialization and companionship can have on elderly mental health and well-being. Opportunities to engage with others and grow relationships with friends, family, neighbors and community members can help improve symptoms of depression, ease feelings of senior isolation and loneliness, and even reduce the risk of dementia.
By spending time with our caregivers, your loved one not only has someone at the ready to help around the house or help prepare a meal, they also have a friend who offers social connection and a companion who can help them get back to doing the things that bring them joy.
What is companion care?
Companion care, or companionship, provides emotional support, friendship, and socialization. Common home companion care activities include:
- Conversation and mental stimulation, such as playing games or listening to music
- Meal prep and time spent together over breakfast, lunch or dinner
- Light activity, such as a walk or time spent outside
- Laundry and light housekeeping
- Grocery shopping and errands
- Transportation to and from appointments and social events
- Reminders for personal care and grooming
- Medication reminders
At Medica In-Home Care, we focus on activities that bring joy, provide mental stimulation and encourage physical and emotional wellbeing. Our caregivers are in regular communication with a client’s loved ones to share progress, answer questions, and simply check in by providing companion care.
A holistic approach
Caring for the whole person is at the center of our philosophy. It’s a holistic approach that cares for the mind, body, spirit and well-being. Instead of just doing for your loved one, we use every moment to do tasks and activities with them to increase engagement and fulfillment. By focusing on approach, we can elevate the spirits of our clients and their families.
How Medica In-Home Care Can Help
Our caregivers are trained and skilled in a broad range of care services that support home companion care and senior mental health.
Companionship Plans Include:
Nutrition and Meal Prep
Our caregivers can provide assistance with grocery shopping and meal preparation, and support physician-prescribed nutrition and diet plans. Diet impacts overall wellbeing in a big way and decreases the likelihood of many common health conditions like heart disease and diabetes. Whether someone is seeking help following a special diet or looking for companionship in the kitchen, our caregivers can provide the assistance necessary for wholesome at-home meals. Our goal is to make meal-time both healthy and enjoyable.
Conversation and Companionship
Studies show that seniors who stay socially engaged enjoy improved quality of life compared to their solitary counterparts. They also have a lower tendency to develop depression and general cognitive decline. Our caregivers provide seniors with conversation, mealtime companionship, and camaraderie during their favorite activities. Completing tasks together helps clients and caregivers form lasting, meaningful relationships.
Laundry and Light Housekeeping
Our caregivers can take care of all laundry needs, either in the home or at a nearby laundromat. These services can include washing, drying, ironing, and putting clean laundry away. Light housekeeping services include vacuuming, dusting, sweeping, mopping, cleaning bathrooms (sinks, tubs, showers, and toilets), cleaning kitchens (sinks, appliances, counters, and taking out the trash), straightening all rooms, organizing closets and drawers, and cleaning any interior windows reachable without a ladder.
Grocery Shopping and Errands
Medica In-Home Care services can include grocery shopping, prescription pick-up or other errands into the custom care plan to assist those that prefer not to, or can’t, leave their home.
Transportation
We provide transportation services to help those that need assistance home after a hospital stay or need a ride to and from important appointments.
Medication Reminders
Caregivers can help ensure that clients take their medication as prescribed by providing medication reminders. They can open medication containers, read care plans and prescription labels, and remind the client when it is time for the next dose.
Medica In-Home Care develops custom care plans that include physical safety and wellbeing, emotional health, and socialization. Our goal is to help our clients have the best quality of life while maintaining their independence at home.
Personal Care
For seniors who want to live independently at home, but find that daily activities and tasks present difficulty as they age, our experienced caregivers can assist with personal care such as bathing, mobility assistance, grooming and more.
What is Personal Care?
Personal care is a broad term that supports basic personal hygiene and activities of daily living, including dressing, grooming, and toileting. Medica In-Home Care’ trained caregivers assist with personal care needs ranging from stand-by assistance to full care depending on each client’s individual needs.
This can include basic tasks, such as bathing, mobility assistance, incontinence and toileting care, preparing and serving meals, to more hands-on personal care including position changes for those clients that are bedbound and specialized care for those with memory issues or cognitive impairments, fall risk assessment and prevention, change in condition monitoring.
Personal home care services can also include assistance with outings, social events, shopping trips, and other activities of interest to maintain engagement both physically and emotionally.
Medica In-Home Care can develop a custom care plan for your loved one that includes physical safety and wellbeing, emotional health, and socialization. Our goal is to help our clients have the best quality of life while maintaining their independence at home.
Personal Care Plans Include:
Bathing and Hygiene
Medica In-Home Care’ goal is to assist our clients with their personal care routines so they can look and feel their best. Studies show undeniable benefits for seniors’ self-esteem and emotional fitness to have regular hygiene and grooming. We are here to help clients who fear falling while bathing or have limitations that make grooming tasks difficult.
Tasks may include:
- Showering and bathing
- Getting dressed, including shoes and accessories (belt, watch, jewelry, etc.)
- Brushing teeth or dentures
- Styling and brushing hair
- Makeup application
- Shaving with an electric razor
With something like bathing, consistency is important — being able to bathe daily, or near-daily, is essential to staying healthy. Health issues can be caused by a failure to wash frequently enough, yet senior bathing is a task that gets harder as the years pass.
Fall Prevention and Mobility Assistance
Avoid unnecessary risks in the bathroom and around the house. Bathroom features are not always designed with seniors in mind and can be a fall risk. This is especially true for surfaces that may be wet and slippery after a bath or shower. Reducing falls in the home is one of the top safety concerns that seniors and their families face.
Our caregivers greatly reduce this risk by providing mobile assistance inside the home and helping to keep the home safe from fall risks. There are many benefits to having extra hands for mobility assistance around the house, including:
- Less risk with trained help and a steady arm
- Less temptation to skip out on housekeeping tasks or personal hygiene, like getting to the bathroom to bathe or getting around the kitchen for dinner
- Companionship to help with chores not only makes tasks easier to complete, but also brings comfort just in having someone to talk to and socialize.
Transferring and Positioning
As we age, moving around the house can get more difficult. One of our top priorities is helping our clients move around their homes comfortably. This may include getting in and out of bed, chairs, and wheelchairs.
Proper transferring and positioning can contribute to reducing bedsore risks. This also helps reduce muscle atrophy, while encouraging proper breathing and digestion. It can also lower the risk of falls and injuries.
Toileting and Incontinence Care
We understand the sensitive nature of toileting and incontinence care for our clients. Our caregivers offer compassionate, dignified help with these personal aspects of daily living.
At Medica In-Home Care, we can provide a senior incontinence care plan and help with daily hygiene. By building a trusted relationship, our caregivers can help your loved ones in the comfort of home. A big part of dealing with incontinence care is simply remaining clean and comfortable.
Incontinence can be a difficult issue for a senior to discuss. If the senior or a loved one is not willing to ask for help, hygiene issues can arise and may compound over time.
Senior Nutrition & Meal Prep
Our caregivers can support physician-prescribed nutrition and diet plans. We also provide assistance with grocery shopping and meal preparation that meets nutritional needs or accommodates special dietary restrictions.
It is not uncommon for seniors to be on a restricted diet. A doctor or a nutritionist may include special dietary needs in a wellness plan, which can include limits on what can be consumed, or in what quantities.
Common situations include:
- Different medications can have food restrictions or sensitivities associated with them, and physician-created nutrition plans typically account for these sensitivities. Timing of medication doses can be a critical part of a care plan. Timing can be a concern, especially if a senior is dealing with physical limitations or memory loss.
- Proper nutrition can be an issue for seniors living alone. Moving around the kitchen and lifting pots and pans may be harder than it once was, and as a result, healthier home-cooked meals are challenging. Instead, those meals may be substituted with fast food, packaged food, or simply less calorie consumption. It's especially important for the elderly to consume enough calories and the right nutrients to avoid obesity, excessive weight loss, and dehydration.
- Dehydration can lead to a number of serious problems if left unchecked. It continues to be one of the most frequent causes of hospitalization among older adults. Eight 8-ounce glasses is generally considered the standard when it comes to proper daily intake, but more may be needed depending on prescribed medications or health conditions.
Whether someone is seeking help following a special diet or looking for companionship in the kitchen, our caregivers can provide the assistance necessary for wholesome at-home meals. Our goal is to make mealtime both healthy and enjoyable.