Palliative care often focuses on managing one’s illness. Personal care for palliative patients is an additional service that assists them with their daily activities and enhances their quality of life.
What is personal care for palliative patients?
Personal care for palliative patients is a type of home care service that involves trained caregivers assisting individuals with serious health conditions with their activities of daily living.
Personal care focuses on improving their quality of life and providing comfort. It can help people not only physically but also mentally and emotionally. It also helps their loved ones by providing peace of mind and support for families.
Discover more about personal care services.
15 ways personal care helps with palliative care
Personal care helps with palliative care by focusing on the individual’s quality of life, comfort, and dignity. There are many benefits of personal care.
1. Helps people to stay in their homes
Personal care helps people to stay in their homes and with their loved ones. Aging in place is a goal for many seniors, and with personal care, people can get the help they need to be able to continue living at home safely.
Learn about the benefits of aging in place.
2. Focus on activities of daily living
Personal home care consists of helping people with their activities of daily living (ADLs), which are the fundamental skills required to care for yourself, including:
- Eating
- Moving around
- Moving in or out of bed/chairs
- Going to the bathroom (using the toilet and cleaning themself after)
- Bathing
- Grooming (including brushing nails and hair)
- Dressing
Try our checklist to determine which activities of daily living you could use help with.
3. Physical comfort
In addition to helping people move around comfortably and safely, personal caregivers can also help ensure physical comfort by assisting with pain management. They can get ice packs or heating pads, help with stretching or repositioning, or help with relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises.
4. Monitoring and peace of mind
Having a trained caregiver around to monitor symptoms and ensure their safety can also bring both the palliative patient and their loved ones peace of mind. They can also keep healthcare providers and family informed of any changes in the individual’s condition.
5. Medication management
Personal care providers can also ensure that individuals are taking the correct dose of the correct medicine at the correct time.
This may not seem like an important thing that people need help with, but studies have shown that between 75-96% of older patients make frequent mistakes with managing their medications, and these errors can lead to severe damage, hospitalization, or death.
Having someone who knows the information about each prescription, ensures each is taken correctly, and monitors for any side effects, can greatly help palliative patients.
6. Personal hygiene
Since personal care involves bathing and grooming, it promotes cleanliness and comfort. Caregivers can also help seniors use the bathroom in a hygienic manner or manage incontinence.
7. Emotional and spiritual well-being
The kind caregivers can also help people manage anxiety or emotional distress and connect them with spiritual resources.
8. Companionship
In addition to being an emotional support, caregivers can also be a social connection. This is important since, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), nearly 25% of people 65 or older are socially isolated.
Caregivers can be someone with whom they can talk, play games, read, or watch movies. They can also help them to communicate more with friends and family, or attend social events.
9. Prevent falls
By assisting with mobility and monitoring them, personal care providers help prevent falls.
They can further help prevent falls by ensuring the home meets the CDC’s fall prevention checklist and assisting people in understanding, locating, and utilizing the necessary assistive equipment or home modifications.
Learn more about how to prevent falls in seniors.
10. Take care of their home
In addition to assisting with home modifications, personal caregivers can help with household chores such as housekeeping and laundry. They can ensure that the person is in a clean and comfortable environment.
11. Create routine
Having a care provider who is frequently around can also help establish a routine, which can help people physically, emotionally, and cognitively.
12. Transportation
Caregivers who provide personal care can also offer safe transportation. They can take people to medical appointments, errands, or social outings.
Find out about the benefits of safe transportation.
13. Coordinate care
Home care companies, which provide personal care, can also coordinate care with the family and the healthcare team. They can advocate for the person and ensure they are getting the care they need.
14. Meal prep
Another service offered is meal prep, which includes planning, shopping, cooking, and cleaning up. The caregiver ensures that the individual is getting a nutritious meal, and everything is tailored to the individual’s needs and preferences.
They can also monitor and ensure that each person is getting proper hydration.
15. Support for caregivers
Hiring a personal care provider doesn’t just help the palliative care patient, but also their family and friends who are caring for them.
Home care providers can be hired for daily assistance or only for respite care (when the primary caregivers need a break)—they are available as needed.
It is practical to hire a caregiver whose services can progress if/when their illness or care needs progress. You will already be set up with someone who can provide the necessary assistance and who could be available in case of an emergency.
Get a free home consultation for personal care from Pacific Angels Home Care
Pacific Angels Home Care can help palliative patients in Monterey, Santa Cruz, Aptos, and the surrounding areas.
Our personal care services for palliative patients provide assistance with ADLs, medication management, companionship care, meal prep, cleaning, respite care, and transportation.
We are available as often or as little as needed and tailor our services to each individual’s specific needs.
Call us today at (831) 708-2876 or reach us online to learn more about how our personal care can help you or your loved one, and schedule a free home consultation!
