The administrators in charge of Home Care services in the Sun Country Health Region want the board and public to be educated about what services are available through the health region to help residents retain a measure of independence in their own homes.

A presentation on Home Care was made to the Sun Country board at their Sept. 26 meeting by Janice Giroux, vice-president of Community Health, and Pat Kessler, regional director of Home Care.

"We need to make sure we're responsive and timely, and we continue to work to make that happen," said Giroux, adding while Home Care tries to do what they can to help a resident stay at home, "Home Care can only do so much."

Home Care does provide a wide range of services, starting with an assessment of the individual person's need for help. Care includes nursing, homemaking, personal care, respite service, Meals on Wheels and palliative care, which is a specialized service for those patients with a terminal illness.

Once a patient has been assessed and they are determined to be eligible for Home Care, there will be a mutually-agreed upon plan of care set out. Nursing is provided when there is a doctor's order to provide nursing treatment or procedures.

Homemaking provides assistance for those in need of house cleaning, laundry and some meal preparation. Personal care includes assistance with bathing, dressing, foot care, respite and other activities of daily living Respite services can be provided to give short-term relief to care-givers, and Meals on Wheels provides nutritionally-balanced meals delivered to the client's home.

Volunteers help provide some of these services, like Meals on Wheels, transportation or assistance with shopping, phone calls or other needs. As Giroux pointed out, "We're finding it increasingly difficult to find volunteers."

Sun Country has about 200 staff for Home Care, including 29 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions for administration (which includes office assistants, schedulers and volunteer coordinators), 34 FTE nurses (RNs and LPNs), and 62 FTE home care aides (a lot of part-time workers in this position), serving a client list currently of 2,023 clients right now.

There is an individualized funding option also where Home Care can provide some funding and the family arranges for the staff person or aide to do the Home Care services.

"Funding is based on the assessed need. There is quite a process to go through Home Care for this funding. For one thing, you can't have a relative provide that care - but on the other hand, it does provide some flexibility," said Giroux, adding there aren't very many clients right now who have applied to use this option.

One of the more useful aspects of Home Care is it allows for earlier discharges from the hospital to allow for recovery at home from medical procedures, there is reduced need for readmittance to a hospital, and there enhanced quality of care and mental health with Home Care, said Giroux, noting one client has needed to be readmitted to a hospital for care.

"The client is educated on how to do some care under direction from Home Care. We're looking at what support we can get from the government," she said.

"We want you, the board, to be our ambassadors and question us on how we're providing services to our clients. The objectives haven't changed much since 1983. Very much the key is independence; most people value independence above all things. We're trying to educate people and make use of health and social services," added Kessler, noting they are mandated to provide a high level of service to the client.