Most of us want to stay in our home as long as we can but there is a great deal of confusion about home care and who pays for it.

A person might need home care because they broke both legs in a skiing accident or car accident, they are recovering from surgery or a stroke or our just getting older and slowing down. Home Care can also include “supervision” which is having someone in the home of a loved one who has some form of dementia and need someone to what over them.

There are two types of care in your home that sound very similar but are very different:
1) Home Care (also called Informal care/unskilled care/ custodial care or supervision)
and
2) Home Health Care- also called formal care/skilled care

The key distinction between the two types of home care is whether some sort of health care or curative care is being provided. 

Home Care (custodial care):
The overwhelming majority of what we think of when we think of home care is help with bathing, getting dressed and help with cleaning, cooking and laundry. The majority of people giving this care are friends or family members. If the person giving the care at home is from a company they can be called homemakers, caregivers, companions, or personal attendants.

Home Health Care (Skilled Care) –With home health care someone with a license like a Registered Nurse or physical therapist visits the patient in their home and does something medical or curative in nature. This could changing a dressing, checking a wound for infection or doing physical therapy. The Registered Nurse is not going to:

• do your laundry
• cook your breakfast
• help you get dressed in the morning

Doing laundry, cooking and helping someone get dressed is very important help but a person with a medical license, like a nurse or physical therapist, does not do that sort of work.