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What does a Home Care Worker do?

G. Wiesen
G. Wiesen

While the specific tasks performed by a home care worker can vary, in general they often help with household chores and maintenance and assist with non-medical functions. The specific needs of the client dictate the exact nature of the work done by home care professionals. They typically work with people who are extremely sick, impaired some way physically or mentally, or who are elderly and unable to fully take care of themselves. The work done by a home care worker helps a person remain in his or her own home, rather than in a nursing home or similar facility.

A home care worker is someone who works in the home of a client and assists with a number of day-to-day activities and tasks. This type of work is usually done for a person who is physically or mentally unable to fully care for himself or herself. Someone may require assistance due to a physical impairment, such as recovering from a serious injury, and so needs the help of a worker to perform household tasks or move between rooms. A home care worker can be found privately, or may work through an agency that helps place the worker with clients in need.

Home care workers may help elderly people who are unable to care for themselves.
Home care workers may help elderly people who are unable to care for themselves.

Chores and helping out around the house are some of the most common tasks a home care worker performs for a client. This can involve anything from cleaning up around a person’s home to picking up food and groceries and running other errands for a person. While such tasks may initially seem menial, anyone recovering from a physical illness or impairment requires a clean environment to ensure continued health. The human contact provided by a home care worker for someone who may be homebound can provide a positive psychological function, as well.

Home care workers may help clients with laundry.
Home care workers may help clients with laundry.

A home care worker often performs a number of non-medical functions to assist a person who cannot perform such functions alone. Someone who is bedridden, for example, may need assistance with moving from room to room, having the sheets of his or her bed changed, and bathing. An elderly individual who is suffering from Alzheimer’s may require assistance with household chores and occasional assistance with personal grooming and other tasks to ensure healthy living. Someone who is suffering from a terminal illness, but who does not wish to be in a hospital or hospice, might also receive assistance from a home care worker to ensure an environment that is as comfortable as possible.

Discussion Comments

Animandel

A good thing about many home care workers is that they are professional health care workers also. Several of the nurses who work for the medical company I work with also work as home care workers.

Drentel

@Laotionne - When my parents got older, they wanted to remain in their house. This is something I can understand. I will be the same way when I reach old age. My mother had Alzheimer's disease and this complicated their living situation. She was the youngest of the two of them, and she was the one who had done most of the work around the house before she got ill.

So in addition to needing someone to watch my mother we needed someone to do cooking and cleaning around the house, so they both could remain in the house and have it be a good environment for them.

Eventually, Mama had to go into a nursing home, but with the help of a couple of home care workers I was able to keep both of them at home for four or five more years more than I would have been able to without the helpers around the house.

Laotionne

My great grandmother is old, but she is still independent. The family is talking about making some changes in her living situation. She still lives in the home where she and my great grandfather lived most of their lives. That is where she wants to live the rest of her life, but we are worried that she shouldn't be living alone. Nursing home care might be better for her.

It is such a tough decision to make, especially when you are making the choice for someone else. If the decision is left up to her she will never leave the house, no matter what her physical condition.

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    • Home care workers may help elderly people who are unable to care for themselves.
      By: Ocskay Bence
      Home care workers may help elderly people who are unable to care for themselves.
    • Home care workers may help clients with laundry.
      By: Monika Wisniewska
      Home care workers may help clients with laundry.
    • Home care workers may provide basic health screenings.
      By: Hunor Kristo
      Home care workers may provide basic health screenings.
    • Home care workers can help with physical therapy regimens.
      By: nyul
      Home care workers can help with physical therapy regimens.
    • Home care workers may be required to help people who have impairments that prevent them from performing basic tasks.
      By: Gang
      Home care workers may be required to help people who have impairments that prevent them from performing basic tasks.
    • The work done by a home care worker helps a person remain in his own home.
      By: Rob
      The work done by a home care worker helps a person remain in his own home.
    • Home care workers provide emotional as well as physical support for the elderly.
      By: Gabriel Blaj
      Home care workers provide emotional as well as physical support for the elderly.