Here in the United States, living with a disability can be hard, as can aging and losing agility both of the mind and the body. From getting to place to place in the home to performing tasks related to personal care, independence is not always possible for such people. Fortunately, home health aides can help, making a considerable difference in the lives of many. Home health aides are even becoming more necessary now than ever before, as more and more of the population (the members of the Baby Boomer generation in particular) enter their elderly years.
Many adults want to live independently for as long as are possibly able to, and even more very much resist the idea of moving out of their homes and into any type of assisted living facility or even retirement community. For many people, the home is an important place, a place where they have spent many years of their lives, watching their children grow and often sharing a great amount of love with their partner, who may or may not still be alive. Moving away from that and changing so much about their day to day life so late in the game of life can be an impossible thought, but living independently sadly becomes an impossibility for many.
After all, adults become more frail as they age, especially once they have reached and surpassed the age of 65. In fact, a new elderly person is seen just about every 10 seconds in one of the many emergency rooms around the country for a fall, and even more suffer very serious complications – some of which ultimately result in death – in the aftermath of a fall. Breaking bones is common, and brain damage sustained in a fall is certainly not unheard of either. Fortunately, home health aides can help seniors to stay in their own homes will still providing the care that they need to live safely. After all, senior services represent one of the main uses of health aides in this country, with currently more than 110 home health aides working with a total of each set of 1,000 older people here in the United States alone.
But home health aides don’t just work with elderly people, even if older people do make up the majority of the case load for the typical home health aide here in the United States. Disabled people like veterans can also benefit from the help of home health aides, especially if they have been left with a physical disability of any nature that makes navigating the typical home environment a difficult or even impossible task without the help of another person. Various veterans services often even provide home health care for veterans who are in need of it, no matter how old or how young they might be.
Children with autism might also benefit from home health aides coming to work with them, especially as they grow older but even if their parents are trying to balance many other aspects of life. Many parents also might not just have the training to meet their children’s physical needs as fully as is possible, and this is where home health aides can step in and provide what is often some very much needed help and regular assistance. And with 5% of all kids in the United States having at least one disability, if not even more than that, the use of home health aides is rising for these purposes.
Home health aides can even sometimes provide care for disabled adults whose parents have passed on or are for whatever other reason (such as aging and becoming more physically frail) no longer able to care for them and meet all of their needs. While group homes are an option under such circumstances, they are not always ideal (though this will vary from group home to group home, certainly) and can even have extensive wait lists to even get into in the first place. Fortunately, home health aides can provide the same level of care – and can of course provide some much needed socialization as well.
