McCortney Family In-Home Care News In-home Care Service for those Recovering from Surgery: A trip into the great unknown This is the second post in a series about the types of In-home care services  we provide to our clients in South-Central/Southeastern Oklahoma.  While many of the people we provide caregivers for are generally the same, there are a few different issues that come up specifically with different sets of senior citizens.  During this series we will discuss some of the specifics of family home care services for patients being discharged from nursing homes, those recovering from surgery, and those suffering

McCortney Family In-Home Care News In-home Care Service for those being Discharged from a Nursing Home: Removing the fear and going home again! This is the first post in a series about the types of In-home care services  we provide to our clients in South-Central/Southeastern Oklahoma.  While many of the people we provide caregivers for are generally the same, there are a few different issues that come up specifically with different sets of senior citizens.  During this series we will discuss some of the specifics of family home care services for patients being discharged from nursing homes, those recovering from

McCortney Family In-Home Care News Is Long-Term Care Insurance Right for You? This article is not from the great state of Oklahoma, but the basic discussion applies anywhere.  Here’s the cut and paste version of the highpoints:  (The whole article is worth reading.) “Long-term care is the biggest threat to elders’ financial well-being,” he said. Another option is long-term care insurance, which can cover the costs of care for those who lose the ability to perform some of the basic activities of independent living because of health issues. Long-term care insurance is different from health insurance. The premiums policyholders pay

McCortney Family In-Home Care News VA Aide and Attendance I must say, that this program, from the National Center for Policy Analysis article, makes a lot of sense. The Balancing Incentive Payments Program is intended to keep as many people as possible out of nursing home care. Nursing home care is expensive, and a 2010 AARP survey found that 9 out of 10 older Americans would prefer in-home care to nursing home care. If in-home care for senior adults is what people want and providing in-home caregivers instead of nursing home care saves money, why wouldn’t this be the direction

McCortney Family In-Home Care News Profile of a Long-Term Care Cargiver PBS has done a good job summarizing the cost of caring for your mom or dad at home with their article, which is provocatively titled, “What working a part-time job for five years – for free – looks like”.  (There is also an interesting graphic that goes with it that you can find here.)  Here are a couple of the stats pulled out of the article: – This will impact a lot of us, 40 percent of all women 18 or older and 37 percent of all men 18

McCortney Family In-Home Care News In-home Care Service for those with Alzheimer’s Disease or Dementia: No, it is NOT a babysitting job! This is the third and final post in a series about the types of In-home care services we provide to our clients in South-Central/Southeastern Oklahoma. While many of the people we provide caregivers for are generally the same, there are a few different issues that come up specifically with different sets of senior citizens. During this series we will discuss some of the specifics of family home care services for patients being discharged from nursing homes, those recovering

McCortney Family In-Home Care News How Many In-home Caregivers Will It Take? Nobody likes strangers in their home.  Senior Adults, especially those with memory problems associated with Alzheimer’s Disease or dementia, or physical problems like COPD (emphysema) or severe arthritis that make moving around the house hard, are not an exception to this rule.  Because of that, one of the questions we most often get asked is, how many caregivers will you be putting into my mom’s home (or dad’s).  The answer is, as few as possible.  If you need around the clock live-in care, we accomplish this with two

McCortney Family In-Home Care News In-home Agencies Fight Fraud This article (or any other that you want to find) is the latest in a long list of tales of family home caregivers who have abused or neglected their clients.  It is a sad thing, and something that is hard for most of us to imagine.  Unfortunately it is a reality.  This is also why hiring an Elder Care Agency is so important in Oklahoma (or any other state for that matter.) 1.  We do background checks on all employees, and this includes checklists of people who have been connected with

McCortney Family In-Home Care News Hiring Someone to Help With Home Care I love the introduction to the article “Hiring Someone to Help With Home Care” from the AARP: Most questions about family caregiving can’t be answered with a simple yes or no. But the question of whether home care agencies are all alike is one of the few that can. And the answer is a definite no. The entire article is worth a read if you are new to this discussion.  It helps explain what in-home care Medicare provides, and the limits of that care.  Then it goes on

McCortney Family In-Home Care News 25 charged in bogus home care scheme; prosecutors call it DC’s largest health-care fraud 25 charged in bogus home care scheme; prosecutors call it DC’s largest health-care fraud This article from U.S. News and World Report is another example of how hard it is to track caregivers providing in-home care in a senior adult’s home. The alleged schemes, which prosecutors said were similar but not necessarily part of a unified conspiracy, involved bogus claims for home care services, …. The uptick in billings for home care – from $40 million in 2006 to $280 million

McCortney Family In-Home Care News Can Technology Save Home Care? This article comes from a company that is trying to sell their care management system, but it does discuss an interesting question.  First, I don’t know that I agree that Home Care needs “saving”, but I do think that technology is only going to make it better. First, let’s talk about what McCortney Family In-home care already does with technology. We use what the industry calls a “telephony” system, but I have always thought that was a bad name.  Our system allows our caregiver to clock in when they arrive

McCortney Family In-Home Care News Who Cares for the Home Care Aides? Olympia Dukakis recently wrote an article, that I found on CNN.com, that tells about her personal experience with in-home care.  She had caregivers that cared for her mother who had Alzheimer’s in the 1980s.She does a good job of explaining the importance of elder care services such in in-home care: Like so many families, we turned to committed and compassionate home-care workers, who supported not only my mother but also the whole family during the progression of my mother’s disease.I am so grateful that I was able to be

McCortney Family In-Home Care News Reliable Post-Operative or Senior Home Care Service There are a couple of things about this blog post that we should spend more time discussing on this blog, but I will have to skip discussing using In-home caregivers for post surgery care and focus on their section about the benefit of finding an In-home care company that provides individual assessments. As they state in their article: If you or a loved one is in need of in-home care services, a reputable company typically begins the process with a care assessment. It’s likely you’d prefer an in-home

McCortney Family In-Home Care News 6 things not to do as a caregiver Here is a great article from kevinmd.com (one of my favorite blogs) about the hardship of being a family caregiver.  Yes, I know that this doesn’t necessarily fit on the website of a company that provides in-home care for elderly clients, but the advice is just too good not to share.  We know that our service isn’t for everyone, and if this information helps those who are able to care for their parents or spouse at home, then we’ve done something good. Pay special attention to number six,

McCortney Family In-Home Care News Location of Service I know this is a weird post, (We do have a map of our services on the website), but one of the most frequent questions I get is what our geographic coverage area is.  My standard answer is that we provide family home caregivers to a huge part of southern and southeastern Oklahoma.  That answer is to vague, so I’m trying a different answer today.  He is a list of everywhere our in-home care services are being provided to senior adults TODAY. Ardmore, OKMadill, OKDickson, OKWilson, OKLone Grove, OKDavis, OKMilburn, OKStratford, OKAda,

McCortney Family In-Home Care News Three Things to Know when Hiring a Home Health Aide This article from USA Today helps sort out the type of In-home Care service that you or your loved one may need. Depending on their condition, there are many different forms of In-Home Care. Many, including people with early stages of Alzheimer’s or Dementia, just need a companion caregiver while others need the assistance of a Certified Nurses Aide. Some need a few hours a week and others need 24 hours a day seven days a week help. Our company can provide any of these

McCortney Family In-Home Care News No Tax Day Stress for Our In-home Care Clients It’s everyone’s favorite day of the year.  Tax day 2014 is upon us!  Woohoo, right? Okay, I know, nobody gets excited about tax day, but, if you use a  true In-home Care company for your elder care needs in Oklahoma, your tax worries would be significantly less.  There are a lot of benefits to using a company like our family home care company (bonding, on-the-job injuries, drug testing, background checks, reference checks, reliability.), but today, let’s focus on the tax day reasons to use a full

McCortney Family In-Home Care News Ten Warning Signs that an Elderly Loved One May Need In-Home Care The holidays are over and it’s back to the grind, but for many of us, especially the children of The Greatest Generation or even Baby Boomers, there is a nagging question in our heads.  Is mom (or dad) really okay living alone or do they need assistance from in-home caregivers? If you are one of the people who is worrying about their parents, this article has a list of ten warning signs that may indicate that you should consider in-home care services for

McCortney Family In-Home Care News Op-Ed: Raising the Bar for Elderly Care at Home There was an interesting op-ed column in US News recently by the Director of Product Strategy, Social Program Management, at IBM.  Read the whole thing. It discusses the aging of our population: Consider that the oldest living person today – Misawo Okawa at 116 years old – was not expected to see her 45th birthday when she was born in 1898. While super-centenarians like Okawa are rare, people in the United States can expect to live an average of 78.7 years, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation

McCortney Family In-Home Care News Seniors Fill Ranks of Caregiving Workforce for Elderly This article discusses one of the things that seems to surprise many of our in-home care clients. It comes out of another state, but definitely applies to the Elder Care services we provide in Oklahoma.  Many of our clients, especially those with Alzheimer’s, dementia, and COPD, don’t need a lot of “hands on care”.  The need a companion.  Often the best companion for a Senior Adult is another Senior Adult. As demand for senior services provided by nurses’ aides, home health aides and other such workers grows

McCortney Family In-Home Care News Ten of the Most Important Caregiver Traits This article from caring.com does a good job of listing some of the traits that we look for when hiring our caregivers.  Sure, we focus on clean background checks, a good work history, trustworthiness, and many other traits that you most often associate with people providing In-Home Care (or Elder Care), but it’s not that simple. I especially like Numbers six and seven:  6. They Look at the Whole Picture. Sometimes things just don’t add up, and it takes a good caregiver supersleuth to look past the obvious

McCortney Family In-Home Care News State tightens rules on home care aides When searching for a caregiver to bring into your home,  McCortney In home Care can help with this process. Our In-home caregivers go thru training, background checks, drug screening, and driving record reports. We understand the importance on proper screening when you are planning to bring a caregiver into your home. In the past few months, the state has cracked down on the laws for caregivers in the home. At Mccortneys we meet all the laws that are required by the state. States looking to tighten rules on

McCortney Family In-Home Care News What are in-home care services? It’s always hard to totally define what “in-home care services” are.  Every patient is client is different.  Every family has different needs.  The list of things that our caregivers can help you with seems unending.  Clearly, our company website had tried to define what family home care is and looks like, but it never hurts to let others try to help.  With that in mind, here are two different paragraphs from a blog post that seem to define it decently. First, family in-home care for those with a short-term disability:

McCortney Family In-Home Care News Long Term Care Costs Cheapest at Home I would have linked any article with the title –”Long Term Care Costs Cheapest at Home”, but the fact that this article comes from the Money section of “U.S. News and World Report” makes it even more exciting.  You should read it for yourself, but for those of you who are pressed for time, I’ll give you some bullets.In-home Care cost for caregivers is stable: The good news in the survey is that costs for in-home care — where nearly 80 percent of people prefer being cared for

McCortney Family In-Home Care News Demand Increasing for Paid Caregivers Finding good quality family home care providers is probably the hardest part of running an in-home care service in Oklahoma, and the same can be said all over the United States.  I thought the statistics in this article were interesting: By 2020 Iowa will need 95,000 paid caregivers. The average annual turnover rate for the profession in the state is more than 60 percent, according to the Iowa CareGivers Association. The organization founded by Di Findley, a 13-year nurse aide, estimates that to keep up with the turnover, Iowa employers spent $193

McCortney Family In-Home Care News VA Aide and Attendance At McCortney Family In Home care, we know the importance of selecting just the right caregiver for your specific needs. We take great pride in our In home Care, and value the care and kindness our caregivers give to our clients. We recently found a article that also gives insight to the importance of selecting the right caregiver for your  In home Care.Below you will find an exert from that informative article. 10 Things That Make In-Home Caregivers Stand Out Perhaps you’ve been caring for an aging parent for years, or

McCortney Family In-Home Care News Advantages of Home Care for Elderly with Alzheimer’s or Dementia The quotes below are from a general article on in-home care service, but I would like to focus them down a bit to family home care for those with Alzheimer’s or dementia.  I believe remaining in YOUR home is important for all senior adults, but it is increasingly important for those with cognitive disorders. The last thing anyone wants is to be forced by circumstances to leave the house you have lived in for decades. One of the advantages of these services is that they can enable

McCortney Family In-Home Care News Oklahoma is the Third Cheapest State for Long-Term Care Costs in 2014 You will have to follow the links to find the details of the study, but I thought it was noteworthy that Oklahoma is the third cheapest state in which to receive long term care. 3. Oklahoma Average Annual Cost: $37,813 Adult day care: $15,600 Licensed home care: $41,184 Assisted living: $36,978 Nursing home (private room): $57,488 Anecdotally, I can tell you that it is always funny when I receive a phone call from people who live on the east coast but need family home care

McCortney Family In-Home Care News Deciding Where to Get Care for Your Elderly Parents I typically try not to copy and paste too much from the in-home care articles that I link to on this blog, but I’m just not sure I could write this story much better than they did. (Read the whole thing here) I’ll give you chunks and then my thought with them. During the past five years, the cost of a private room at a nursing home rose 4.19% annually….Nursing homes rate hikes outpaced that of in-home aide care, which rose 1.32% annually during the same

McCortney Family In-Home Care News VA Aide and Attendance Yesterday, we met with Aaron Budd, an attorney who specializes in Elder Law, and an expert on VA Aide & Attendance benefits.  We learned a TON of information on what it takes to qualify, how to qualify, and what types of benefits are available.  Here’s what we learned:The VA Aide & Attendance program offers reimbursements for medical expenses for qualified Veterans and/or their spouses.Here’s what it takes to qualify:– The individual must be 65 years or older.– The individual needs help with at least 2 out of 5 Activities of Daily