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Becoming a Home Care Provider – What you Need to Know

If you don’t have any advanced medical training, but are passionate about caring for seniors, a career as a home care provider may be a good choice for you. Thanks to home care providers, elderly adults are able to age safely within the comfort of their homes and it makes this role extremely fulfilling. If you are interested in becoming one, you first need to understand exactly who home care providers are.

This term refers to any professional who assists a person in living more safely in their homes, while also enabling them in maintaining the highest possible quality of life. Non-medical care, companion care, senior care providers or homemaker care are some of the other terms used to refer to these professionals.

There are a number of responsibilities that a homecare provider has to take on, which include assisting seniors in their daily self-care activities, such as grooming, dressing, bathing and using the toilet, engaging in hobbies and activities, providing companionship, helping with shopping and errands, supervising if the elderly suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s and helping with meal preparation, planning, medication reminders, laundry, transportation to appointments and other household responsibilities. They also help seniors in living safely by helping them move from bed to wheelchair and ensuring fall prevention.

Unlike a healthcare provider, a home care provider doesn’t need formal medical training. But, they should have some certifications, such as care certificate standard 1, which can provide them guidance on how to tackle their responsibilities and provide the right kind of care. Along with a certification, you also need to have the necessary skills to handle the needs of the elderly. It requires a great deal of compassion, patience and empathy and can turn out to be a very rewarding job for people in the long run.