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How Can I Become My Mother's Home Health Care Provider?
Date Updated: January 30, 2025
Written by:
Sarah has produced thousands of articles in diverse niches over her decade-long career as a full-time freelance writer. This includes substantial content in the fields of senior care and health care. She has experience writing about wide-ranging topics, such as types of care, care costs, funding options, state Medicaid programs and senior resources.
Reviewed by:
Dr. Brindusa Vanta is a health care professional, researcher, and an experienced medical writer (2000+ articles published online and several medical ebooks). She received her MD degree from “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine, Romania, and her HD diploma from OCHM – Toronto, Canada.
You can’t become your mother’s home health care provider. Unlike nonmedical home care, home health care provides skilled services from medical professionals, such as nurses, rehabilitation therapists and certified nursing assistants. Unless you have medical training and experience, you can’t safely attend to a relative’s health care needs at home.
Standard Home Health Care Services
Home health agencies use multidisciplinary teams to provide medical and therapeutic services in a senior’s home. Care professionals include licensed practical and registered nurses, certified nursing aides, nutritionists and medical social workers, as well as physical, occupational and speech therapists. Agencies create customized care plans according to doctor recommendations, and seniors typically receive home health care services under a physician’s prescription.
Common services include:
- Skilled nursing, such as wound care, diabetes management, catheter care and IV therapy
- Medication administration
- Occupational, speech and physical therapies
- Dietary guidance
- Medical social services
- Counseling
- Family education
- Personal care, such as assistance with bathing, grooming, toileting and dressing
Home health care may delay or prevent nursing home admission for frail and medically needy seniors. It also enables an older adult to recover at home following a severe illness, injury or surgical procedure. Seniors with chronic health issues may also benefit from in-home medical support.
How You Can Help Home Health Care Recipients
Although you likely don’t have the skills or training to provide medical care for an older relative, you can support them in many other ways. Public funding only pays for home health personal care services in limited situations. Furthermore, home health providers don’t complete domestic tasks. While some families arrange supplemental nonmedical home care services, you could commit to providing such assistance instead. For example, you may help by doing housework and laundry, running errands, preparing meals and aiding with tasks related to mobility, using the toilet and personal and oral hygiene.
As home health care doesn’t include nonmedical transportation, your older family member may benefit from you taking them to and from appointments. Social isolation and loneliness impact many seniors, especially those who primarily stay at home. Spending quality time with your loved one and engaging in enjoyable activities often enhances their quality of life and emotional well-being.