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Private Care: Helping the Community
For exhausted family caregivers, Marki Flannery, president of our Partners in Care affiliate, and her team of Partners in Care nurses and home health aides are the answer to a prayer. Marki, who directs VNSNY's private care programs, is always thinking of ways to make people's lives just a little bit easier.
Partners in Care provides a variety of Private Care services to individuals and families, and three new programs aim to help the children, siblings and spouses who so often take on the hard work of caring for an ill family member.
A Time for Transitions was designed to ease the difficult period after the death of a spouse. "When someone loses a loved one, there are all kinds of issues that can arise," Marki says. "Sometimes it's the healthy spouse that dies. Sometimes it's the child who wants to be sure a parent can pay the bills, be on his or her own."
For elderly patients living on their own, the program can help them get through the difficult time after a spouse's death and keep them in their home, rather than a nursing facility.
A Time for Transitions can arrange all kinds of services for the surviving spouse, including home health aides to provide meals or do housecleaning, and help with bathing and dressing.
Marki is also excited about Some Time for ... You, a program that provides respite care, giving family caregivers a much-needed break.
"It can be for a couple of hours or for a whole weekend," Marki says. "If there's an event the family wants to go to, or if the caregiver hasn't had a vacation in a long time, we can help. Partners in Care provides whatever the family may need, whether it's home health aides to assist with bathing and dressing, meal preparation and house cleaning, or nurses to administer medication.
A third program is one that many new parents could use. Time Out for Parents is for parents of newborns or toddlers who need a break from the sometimes exhausting work of caring for children. "It's something we've been doing for years informally, but now we're doing it as part of a formal program," Marki says.
Parents can have a home health aide care for a toddler so the parents can have some time with a new baby or go out for a movie or a dinner. Parents of a chronically or terminally ill child might ask for a nurse to come to the house while they spend time with a healthy child.
All of Partners in Care's nurses and aides who participate in the program get special training in childcare.
Partners in Care is also continuing to enhance its Ambulatory Escort Program, says Marki. If a senior or disabled individual needs to go to the doctor, we can provide a home health aide escort so that family members don't have to take the day off from work. If someone is having an outpatient procedure, and the hospital won't discharge the person on his or her own, we can provide an aide to escort the person home and get him or her settled. Home health aide escorts can pick up prescriptions or healthcare products.
Home health aide escorts are even available to help with non-medical needs. If a senior wants to go to a movie, the home health aide escort can go along. If a disabled person or a senior wants to attend a family wedding, but can't do it on his or her own, "We'll have an aide put on a suit or dress and take Dad to the wedding," Marki says. "It makes what could have been a stressful day much easier for the family."
Marki envisions all of the new programs expanding as the word gets out about what Partners in Care offers.
"The message is that you don't need to sign on with us forever," Marki says. "We can customize care and give you exactly what you need."
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