Creating a home care plan that balances increased independence with appropriate assistance is the key to ensuring the well-being and quality of life of a person receiving care. A person-centred home care plan takes each person’s unique circumstances into account to safely provide the care that they need so that they can retain their independence while receiving the support they require. Home care plans that contain supervision notices can achieve the delicate balance of increased independence, as long as the supervision involved is specified and the care plan is designed in a way that the person’s independence. Supervision is person-centred if it occurs when the worker and a loved one are away from the person and out of sight and sound. This guide identifies considerations for creating a strong, person-centred home care plan that strikes the right balance.
1. Understanding Individual Needs and Preferences
Comprehensive Assessment:
- Medical Assessment: Do a thorough medical assessment to determine their current health challenges, medication needs, supportive requirements, and so on.
- Functional Assessment: Checking her ability to perform her activities of daily living (ADLs) for activities such as bathing, dressing, cooking, as well as mobility.
- Appreciate Individual Preferences: Think about the person’s likes and dislikes, patterns of life, and dreams and aspirations, so that the care plan reflects these.
Involvement of the Individual:
- Participate in Decision Making: The rising tide of evidence for patient-centred care is pushing for patient inclusion in discussions about their care-planning decisions. It’s partly a matter of respecting people’s wishes, but it’s also an acknowledgement of their need and benefit from being empowered in these choices.
- Personal goals: hobbies, social life, life/style, etc.
2. Designing a Balanced Care Plan
Assessing Independence:
- Identify Strengths: Focus on the individual’s strengths and capabilities to maximise their independence.
- Empathy Toward the Success of the Other: Give attention to tools and other types of adaptiveness that encourage a person to complete (at least some of) his aims (and not just ‘his’ aims but yours as well those that the two of you share): grab bars, adaptive utensils, canes, rollators, wheelchairs, drugs, prostheses and so forth.
Providing Necessary Assistance:
- Establish care needs: Decide on the areas of care needed, like medications and administering, bathing and dressing, or moving and transportation.
- Personalised Scaffolding: Provide the right amount of help based on an individual’s needs, but also help them maintain their sense of autonomy.
Flexible Care Plan:
Flexible Care Levels: Create a plan that adjusts to varying needs. Review and revise the plan anytime there are changes in health or personal preferences.
3. Implementing Supportive Technologies
Assistive Devices:
- Mobility Aids: Provide walkers, canes, wheelchairs, or other mobility
- aids to assist with mobility and independence.
- Adaptive equipment: You might want to use adaptive equipment for some tasks that are part of your daily life (eg, utensils for dressing, special kitchen appliances, etc)
Smart Home Technology:
- Voice Assistants: Use voice-enabled assistants to set reminders, communicate, and control your smart home devices.
- Remote monitoring: Set up health metrics and safety trackers that monitor from a distance while respecting your privacy.
Emergency Alert Systems:
- Medical Alerts: Give emergency response buttons with wearable medical alert systems to allow help to be summoned.
- Fall Detection: Use devices designed to detect when you fall and then automatically alert caregivers or emergency responders.
4. Fostering Independence Through Daily Living Support
Personal Care:
- Promote self-care: Assist the person in maintaining her usual hygiene and grooming routines as much as possible.
- Help with Limits: Assist with tasks that the individual finds difficult, such as dressing or bathing, even if it means letting them do more on their own than you are used to doing.
Meal Preparation:
- Encourage participation: Support the person’s involvement in meal planning and meal preparation to the level they can manage.
- Accessible cooking: Modify the kitchen to include tools and devices that facilitate cooking and meal preparation.
Household Management:
- Space: Arrange to surround. Organise Space: Organise space so that movement and access to essentials are easy.
- Assistive Technology: Use assistive technology such as home automation and smart appliances to make tasks of living easier and more independent.
5. Promoting Social Engagement and Emotional Well-Being
Social Activities:
- Foster Participation: Help the person find ways to be involved in social, recreational, and community activities that interest them.
- Social: Facilitate visits with friends or family, signing up for social outings with people you know.
Emotional Support:
- Keep some sort of regular communication with him so there is circuitry repair.
- Mental Health: Have activities that benefit your mental health, e.g., cognitive exercises, relaxation techniques or counselling if required.
6. Involving Family and Caregivers
Family Involvement:
- Coordinate: Liaise with family members about the care plan.
- Training and Education: Train family members in how to best support the person, and also in how to manage any concerns they may have.
Caregiver Support:
- Training: Train caregivers to provide care in a way that respects the person’s maximised independence and allows him or her to perform as many personal activities as possible.
- Routine feedback: Get routine feedback from caregivers to address issues and modify the care plan as needed.
7. Monitoring and Reviewing the Care Plan
Regular Reviews:
- Review Care Plan: Regularly review the care plan to assess (check out) how well it provides for an individual’s needs and preferences.
- Update: Update your care plan when your health, wishes, or situation changes.
Feedback Loop:
- Collect Feedback: Collect feedback from the client, family members or caregivers whether or not the care plan is being implemented as it should be, and modify if necessary.
- Ongoing feedback: Use the plan to decide what to measure and then continue to modify the plan as you receive new measurements and feedback.Continuous improvement.
A house is built only once, but how you adapt and alter it based on the needs of individual residents depends on your creative ability to craft a plan for them. This plan for them and with them will require that they remain independent and autonomous, yet provide for a level of assistance to make them ‘as comfortable as sitting in your lap’. You start with a method to understand how to know when and how much assistance or care is needed.
Personalised home care plans need to be flexible and shifting to reflect changes in need, preferences, and circumstance. If thought is given at the outset and assessment is ongoing, the care provided can always contribute towards independence and safety and, as a result, enable the person to be at home for as long as possible, getting the most out of life.
