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TWENTY REASONS FOR HOME CARE by Val J. Halamandaris Reproduced by permission of the National Association for Home Care, "Twenty Reasons for Home Care," from CARING Magazine, Volume IV, No. 10 (October 1985). Not for further reproduction.

Home care is the oldest form of healthcare. Healthcare has been traditionally given at home throughout the centuries. It is also the newest. Modern technology has developed to the point where virtually anything that is available in a hospital can be provided at home. There is significant evidence that it is less costly than other forms of care, and that it is the most satisfying form of healthcare available to the American public.
1. Home care is delivered at home. There are such positive feelings that all of us associate with being home. When we are not feeling well, most of us ask to go home. When we are feeling well, we enjoy the sanctity of our residences and the joy of being with our loved ones.
2. Home care represents the best tradition in American healthcare. Home health agencies were started as public agencies to seek out the poor and the needy who otherwise would go without care. No one was turned away. This is still true for most of America's home health agencies.
3. Home care keeps families together. There is no more important social value. It is particularly important in times of illness.
4. Home care serves to keep the elderly in independence. With some assistance, seniors can continue to function as viable members of society.
5. Home care prevents or postpones institutionalization. None of us wants to be placed in a nursing home unless this is the only place where we can obtain the 24-hour care that we need.
6. Home care promotes healing. There is scientific evidence that patients heal more quickly at home.
7. Home care is safer. For all of its lifesaving potential, statistics show that a hospital is a dangerous place. The risk of infection is high, and it is not uncommon for patients to develop new health problems as a result of being hospitalized.
8. Home care allows a maximum amount of freedom for the individual.0 Hospitals and nursing homes are regimented, regulated environments. Upon admission to either, an individual is required to surrender a significant portion of his rights in the name of the common good. Such sacrifices are not required at home
9. Home care is a personalized care, tailored to the needs of each individual, and is delivered on a one-to-one basis.
10. Home care, by definition, involves the individual and the family in the care that is delivered. The patient and his family are taught to participate in his healthcare. They are taught how to get well and how to stay that way.
11. Home care reduces stress. Unlike most forms of healthcare, which can increase anxiety and stress, home care has the opposite effect.
12. Home care is the most effective form of healthcare. There is very high consumer satisfaction associated with care delivered in the home.
13. Home care is the most efficient form of healthcare. By bringing health services home, the patient does not generate room and expenses. The patient and/or his family supply the food and tend to the individual's other needs. Technology has now developed to the point where almost any service that is available in a hospital can be offered at home.
14. Home care is given by special people. By and large, employees of home health agencies look at their work not as a job or profession by as a calling. Home care workers are highly trained and seem to share a certain reverence for life.
15. Home care is the only way to reach some people. Home healthcare has its roots sin the early 1900s when some method was needed to provide care for the flood of immigrants who populated our major cities. These individuals usually did not speak English, had little money, and did not understand American medicine. The same conditions exist now to some extent because of the new wave of immigrants and the large number of homeless individuals who roam our streets.
16. There is little fraud and abuse associated with home care. Other parts of the healthcare delivery system have been riddled with fraud and charges of poor care. There have been few, if any, major scandals related to home care.
17. Home care improves the quality of life. Home care helps not only add years to life, but life to years. People receiving home care get along better.
18. The evidence is overwhelming that home care is less expensive than other forms of care. Home care costs one-tenth as much as hospitalization and one-fourth as much as nursing home placement to deal with comparable health problems.
19. Home care extends life. The US General Accounting Office has established that those people receiving home care lived longer and enjoyed living.
20. Home care is the preferred form of care, even for individuals who are terminally ill. There is growing public acceptance and demand for hospice care.

1) Advantages

2) 20 Reasons

3) Guiding A Client Through The Home Health Care Maze

4) Why Work Through An Agency