Homewatch CareGivers
Fairfax Home Care
Homewatch CareGivers of Fairfax provides companion and personal care, transportation services and respite care in Fairfax and Arlington counties and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church; 24/7, 365-days a year. We take away the worry, guilt and fear about hiring professional care for your loved one. When you call us we will answer all of your questions and explain how we protect the dignity of each client with top quality in-home care.
Fairfax Plan of Care
Homewatch CareGivers creates a customized care plan based on the unique preferences and needs of each client. Highly trained caregivers help clients with everyday things that are essential to health and wellness – everything from preparing healthy meals to bathing and other ADLs support, supporting medication schedules and helping clients get around the house that is kept safe and clean. By providing companionship services to help alleviate loneliness and helplessness and boredom, we ensure our clients live each day to its fullest.
Elder Care: No matter what, we make sure that we have a special team of caregivers that work with a specific client to ensure the continuity of care. We work hard to make sure that our care team is consistent for each client from McLean through Lorton, because that’s the Homewatch CareGivers of Fairfax standard.
At Homewatch Caregivers of Fairfax we are not just caring for a client’s physical needs, we are there for the clients emotional needs as well. The three most common emotions that elderly deal with are loneliness, helplessness and boredom. Our Caregivers are trained to interact with the client and include them in decisions about what they want to do while the care giver is there, involving them in the care decisions. That includes giving choices on which outfit they would like to wear, helping with putting the grocery list together, getting their input on what they would like to eat and if able, helping with preparing their meal and engaging them in conversations about their lives. Having the client teach the caregiver how to knit, play a card game or cook a family recipe all help bring purpose. We feel strongly about finding out what interests the client and places they would like to go to.
We help the client improve his or her quality of life. So instead of loneliness they have companionship, instead of feeling helplessness they are active participants in their life and instead of boredom they have activities to look forward to.
Care for Chronic Conditions: When living with a chronic condition, exercise and proper nutrition are extremely important. Our caregivers are trained to assist clients with written or printed exercises, go on walks with the client and to help provide the client a well-balanced diet that takes into consideration any special diets requirements or food allergies. At Homewatch CareGivers of Fairfax, our caregivers have great compassion and concern for each of their clients. In one case, one of our clients had lost a lot of weight. Once we began taking care of her, the caregivers tried different ways to stimulate the client’s appetite. They were really concerned and sought out suggestions on ways they could help the client to eat more. The caregivers were, and continue to be, willing to prepare foods to help the client improve her appetite and gain weight.
Our caregivers receive ongoing training and education about chronic conditions so they have the knowledge and experiences to assist the client as required. If you need extra support when providing care for someone with a chronic condition, we’re here for you. We want to help our clients so they look forward to each day and doing the things they enjoy. We want them to feel that they have a life worth living without boredom, loneliness or helplessness.
Dementia Care: Dementia can be very frustcertified for those living with it and for the person’s family and friends. Dementia whether from Alzheimer’s or otherwise can cause dramatic mood swings and personality changes. The loved one’s behaviors change and how he or she handles situations can be very different from how they did in the past. Memories become distorted or lost. They become easily confused and frustrated.
Homewatch CareGivers of Fairfax has caregivers that are trained to handle and help family members with the loved one’s troubling behaviors. Patience above all else is needed. Sometimes a little therapeutic fibbing is required as well. If a loved one tells one of our care givers they want to go visit their Mother who the caregiver knows has passed, our caregivers are trained not to contradict the loved one but instead try to tactfully change the topic to another subject. Telling a loved one with dementia that their parent is dead may cause the loved one to grieve again for something that happened in the past. If the loved one is not distracted, our care givers are trained to use therapeutic fibbing and explain to the loved one that the person is on their way or will be back tomorrow, etc., by which time the loved one will have forgotten they were looking for their parent. Our caregivers take pride in coping and helping family members to cope with what the loved one sees as their current reality, without correcting them on things that they won’t remember or the truth can be unpleasant and cause the client frustration and/or grief.
People with dementia often feel isolated, bored and lonely. Our caregivers are taught that interacting with and learning about the loved one’s past are extremely important for the loved one’s (and the family’s) well-being. Homewatch CareGivers serving Fairfax and Arlington counties and the cities of Alexandria, Alexandria and Falls Church compiles a social history – gathering information from the loved one and their family and friends to learn about loved one’s past; including where they lived, where they traveled to, their education and many other aspects of their lives. It is important to learn what makes them happy and what makes them sad so the positive can be accentuated and the negative things can be avoided. With this information the caregiver can bring up to the loved one topics to stimulate conversation and pleasant memories and activities they can do together.
We pride ourselves in selecting care givers providing dementia care that are extremely patient, compassionate and non-judgmental. Caregivers that are assigned to our clients with dementia are required to be experienced with others with dementia and take web-based courses on dementia and handling the behaviors exhibited by those with dementia that are available on our Homewatch CareGivers University. These same courses are also available if family members want to take them.
For more information about all our services, please visit: Homewatch CareGivers of Fairfax