Live Free Home Health Care, LLC. - Bristol, New Hampshire

All posts within: Live Free Home Health Care

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Do Not Forget To Take Time For Yourself

Doctor appointments that have to be scheduled; the constant physical and emotional care that mom or dad or your loved one needs; the endless errands to the grocery store, drug store, physical therapy sessions and, most of all, the need to know you are doing the “right thing” for that loved one you are providing care for are all taxing issues. Here at Live Free Home Health Care we understand the daily challenges you face as a family caregiver and that you most likely have little time for yourself.

But you do need time. Time to reflect, relax and recharge your batteries for at least a few hours each week. This “you time” is important to give you the strength to carry on. It is important to take that time. You deserve it and you should not feel guilty about it.

If you have questions regarding if the care you are providing for your loved one is appropriate, perhaps you should consider hiring a Nurse Care Manager. Live Free Home Health Care has Registered Nurses on staff that are available to meet with you in your home and discuss a care plan. If it is time to yourself you need, Live Free Home Health Care can provide Licensed Home Health Aides, who work under the supervision of a Registered Nurse, for as little as two hours a day to as much as round the clock care, all in the comfort of your or your loved ones home.

If you would like to discuss how we can possibly help give us a call at 603-346-4214.

In the meantime, here are three tips from CareGiver.Com:

1. Accept the help others offer. Suggest specific things they can do for you and your loved one. No one is a Super Hero. Do not feel like you’re the only one that can take dad to the doctor or your wife to her physical therapist. REACH OUT and ask another family member – or close family friend – to assist you occasionally so you have time yourself. Trust in their willingness to help. Many times, they do not know how to reach out and help unless you are able to communicate your needs. If you do not have anyone you can turn to for help, Live Free Home Health Care in Central New Hampshire in the heart of the Lakes Region can assist you with getting your loved one to appointments.
2. Ask for and accept favors such as, a friend staying with your loved one while you are able to get out of the house for a while, a dinner being cooked for you and your loved one once a week, an offer to go to the supermarket or drugstore in your place. Respite can be achieved on a daily basis with the smallest of kindnesses. Again, if you do not have anyone to provide you with Respite time Live Free Home Health Care has Licensed Nursing Assistants who can provide you with a much-deserved break.
3. Know your limits! If you wear yourself out caring for your loved one, who will step in to care for the both of you? Remember, caring for yourself is not selfish; it is the greatest gift you can give for your loved one.

Tags:   family caregivers, Live Free Home Health Care

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Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Should You Use a Licensed Home Health Care Agency?

New Hampshire Home Health Care

The case for using an agency as opposed to hiring someone directly

As anyone who has had to look for home care for a parent, child, or loved one may have discovered, home care rates can be less if you hire help (sometimes referred to as a “private duty nurse”) on your own rather than using an agency like Live Free Home Health Care. This is could be one of the most important decisions you make in regards to looking for in-home care, and if you are contemplating hiring on your own to save a few dollars, it’s important to know what your responsibilities will be. Here are some things you should ask yourself:

1. Are you prepared to place ads, screen responses, conduct interviews, check references, do criminal background checks, and drug screening? Also will you know whether a potential candidate has the right training and skills?

2. Have you calculated the cost of required taxes? You will be responsible for paying social security taxes, unemployment taxes, and workers’ compensation.

3. Do you want the responsibility of supervising workers and resolving misunderstandings when they (and they will) happen?

4. What are you going to do when your caregiver calls in sick? Are you always going to be available to provide back-up? If so, doesn’t that mean you will be on-call around the clock?

5. What about insurance? Does the person you are considering hiring have professional liability insurance?

A quality agency that directly employs its home care associates will assume each of these responsibilities for you. That’s what we do at Live Free Home Health Care. We have carefully screened our caregivers, done criminal background checks and drug screening. We have made sure they have the right training and licenses. We are responsible for paying our caregivers and making sure the appropriate payroll taxes are paid. If one of our caregivers has to miss work at the last minute, we are responsible for finding a replacement. Live Free Home Health Care has the appropriate insurance and we are licensed by the State of New Hampshire as a Home Health Care Provider.

You will have the comfort of knowing we have a Registered Nurse on-call 24 hours a day and are here to handle the unexpected for you. We will anticipate your needs and respond to changes before a potential problem may arise. Let us take the job of employer and care case manager from your shoulders so you can concentrate on relating with your parent, child, or loved one how it matters most: as family.

Jason M. Harvey

Owner, Business and Finance Manager

Live Free Home Health Care, LLC

603.346.4214

Tags:   caregiver, in-home care providers, insurance, Jason Harvey, Live Free Home Health Care

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Thursday, August 31, 2006

New Hampshire Home Health Care-Live Free Home Health Care

Record Enterprise

Live Free Home Health Care is all about living free with dignity

By KERRY L. NORLIN August 24, 2006

NEW HAMPTON - Live Free Home Health Care, LLC, is a newly established medical home health care agency serving the Bristol Lake and Pemi-Baker Valley Regions, Waterville Valley and parts of the Lakes Region. Jason and Jennifer Harvey, co-administrators and owners of Live Free Home Health Care, are passionate about their work and devoted to providing area residents a diversified and complete home care service that fosters independence and dignity.

"It started with an idea that quality of life and health is best served at home and folks from New Hampshire have a sense of independence ingrained in them," explained Jason. "We are a home health care agency, that is what we do; what we provide is independence and dignity to our patients."

As part of their humanitarian-based endeavor, Live Free Home Health Care and their team of skilled nurses, licensed nursing assistants and homemakers offer IV therapy, home health aides, homemaker services, medication and diabetes management, blood draws, private duty professional nursing, pediatric skilled home care, transportation and errands. They also provide respite care to serve family members and caregivers who need a break, which can be individualized using their half day, full day, bed & breakfast and vacation plans. A registered nurse is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Case management is another offering. This service arranges for a registered nurse to accompany patients to their doctor's visit to ensure their needs are being met and their questions answered. The RN will also review treatment plans with the patient as well as with family members and the patient's doctor.

Another important service is block staffing, nursing care provided in the home for as little as two hours per day up to 24 hour coverage. Medicare only covers diagnosis-related short term home health care and Medicaid covers block staffing only if a child requires such care, but Live Free Home Health Care is dedicated to providing block staffing, as they believe it as the single most important service that will allow patients to remain at home and out of nursing and assisted living facilities. Family member caregivers cannot always be there to care for their home-bound loved one, but are also unwilling to relinquish their loved one to a nursing home. Block staffing not only makes it possible for the patient to remain at home, but it also allows their caregivers to provide care when they can and still maintain a normal lifestyle. Furthermore, block staffing is a less expensive alternative to a nursing home.

Jennifer and Jason married in 1998 as students at Southern Illinois University. Jennifer graduated in 1999 with a B.S. in nursing and brings over eight years of nursing experience including working in the surgical and cardiac care unit of an Illinois hospital. Since their move to New Hampshire six years ago, she has worked in a physician's practice and most recently for a home care agency in Laconia. Despite completing his degree in political science, Jason pursued a growing interest in finance and investments. He has subsequently worked for Fidelity, Fleet and most recently as assistant vice president with the Global Wealth and Investment Management group at Bank of America, bringing over eight years of experience in business finance.

The pair found a perfect marriage for their unique talents with the new agency - Jennifer, RN and BSN, as director of patient services and Jason as business and finance manager. Perhaps more important than their professional experience is the vitality, enthusiasm and commitment they bring to the enterprise. They are eager to make a difference not only in the lives of their patients but also in the lives of their staff.

"We appreciate and respect our caregivers. Nursing can be a thankless job. We want our caregivers to truly feel they make a difference, because they do," said Jason.

"We are very careful who we hire. We conduct thorough background checks and everyone is required to participate in an orientation program and observation period to insure they have the competency and skill to work with patients in their homes," explained Jennifer. Reconfirming her husband's conviction, she said, "We want our staff to feel just as appreciated as our patients, and we want their ideas and their feedback."Live Free Home Health Care accepts private pay, select Medicaid plans, and will work with private insurance companies and long term care insurance policies for reimbursement. They are fully insured as a home health care agency and licensed by the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services. To find out more about their services or to discuss your needs, call 346-4214 or 888-346-4214 or e-mail at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). You can also visit their Web site at livefreehomehealthcare.com.

Tags:   home health care, Jason Harvey, Jennifer Harvey, Live Free Home Health Care

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Thursday, August 17, 2006

Taking care of an aging loved one -New Hampshire Home Health Care; Live Free Home HealthCare

I recently read an article in the July 2006 issue of Money magazine, written by Penelope Wang. It interested me because it combined two of my interests, financial planning and health care. As anyone who has had to help an ailing parent knows, it can be a difficult situation made more difficult if proper planning has not been done in advance. While never a pleasant topic to discuss, it is important. The article points out that 34 million Americans are caring for an aging loved one. Some warning signs that could tell you that your parents may need help range from a pile of unopened bills or the frequent complaints about the rising costs of gas, groceries, or medicines. Although loved ones may resist the helping hands of a family member, whether out of embarrassment or loss of independence, when there are clear indications that your parents are struggling, you owe it to your family to step in. Problems don’t solve themselves, and left alone they could jeopardize a lifetime of planning. Most people wait too long to take action. With proper planning, you can make the most of available resources. Here are some strategies that that can help:

Simplify things: little things like arranging for direct deposit of social security and pension and dividend payments go a long way. Also consider consolidating bank and investment accounts. Who really needs more than 1 checking, 1 savings, and 1 investment account? Diversity doesn’t mean having accounts all over the place, it means having different types of investments. You can accomplish this with 2 financial institutions at the most, and a lot of times, even just one. Having spent a few years as an investment advisor, I can’t tell you how many times I had to help children of ailing parents try to organize accounts that were spread among a dozen institutions; it can be a real nightmare.

Have your name added to accounts: If your parents are receptive, this can be a huge help. It allows you access to pay bills and get information on the account as well as access to the account if your parents become incapacitated. It is a good idea to check with your parents’ attorney first to make sure this does not conflict with any estate planning they have done, since you would inherit the account.

Hire Help if needed: If you live too far away or simply don’t have the time necessary to provide enough help, professionals trained to help with the elderly could be an option. You could bring in a money manager to help with budgeting, paperwork and bill paying. You can get referrals from the American Association of Daily Money Managers at http://www.aadmm.com. If your parent needs more generalized help with daily life tasks, like house keeping, personal care, or medical problems, consider hiring a geriatric-care manager; this is important especially if you live far away. They can help make sure everyone is on the same page, from you, to the parent, to your parents’ doctors. They can recommend specialists and monitor care. This is one of the services our company, Live Free Home Health Care, offers.

Get it in writing: No one likes to think about mom or dad becoming incapacitated by illness, and it’s an even worse crisis if it happens and you are unable to help, or had to fight for the right to do so because you did not have the legal authority to act on his or her behalf. It can’t be stressed enough how important it is to have a will and a power of attorney drawn up, and that you know where to locate these documents. You hope you never need these documents but there is peace of mind knowing that all the paperwork is in place and drawn up properly.

The Essential Paperwork: 4 documents you should make sure are drawn up

1. Financial checklist-list of assets with account numbers. Any debt should also be listed.
2. Durable power of attorney-This paper is authorizing someone your parents’ trust, to pay their bills and make financial decisions on their behalf if they are no longer able to do so.
3. Advance directives- A health-care proxy authorizes someone to make medical decisions on your parents’ behalf if the can’t do so and a living will makes it clear their wishes in the event that life-sustaining medical care is required.
4. Health-care privacy authorization- if you don’t have one of these, chances are your parents’ doctors’ will not discuss their medical status with you.

It is a good idea to consult with an attorney who specialized in estate planning to assist with these and other items.

Here are some links to other websites were you can get additional information:

• http://www.aadmm.com/
• http://www.findcaremanager.org/
• http://www.benefitscheckup.com/ - screens for the eligibility for programs that help with property taxes, heating bills and other costs.
• http://www.eldercare.gov/ - help with finding services for seniors near where your parents live.
• http://www.caps4caregivers.org/

If you have any questions or would like to explore how we may be able to help please do not hesitate to call us at 603-346-4214.

Jason M. Harvey

Information for this article was obtained from Money Magazine, July 2006. Pp. 86 – 90, by Penelope Wang.

Tags:   Jason Harvey, Live Free Home Health Care

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