comfort/companion doula service?

[dpw]

what do you all think about this idea?offer clients some one to fill in the gaps that occur when the need is "custodial" care. the role of this person would be to teach stress management,comfort measures,dying or agingprocesses to family and a source of referrals.In addition, this person would provide short periods of respite time for the fulltime caregiver.they would also do personal care, housekeeping,errands,meal prep etc.Basicly, someone that would enable a family to keep a loved one in their home instead of placement. I could either provide these services myself or train others to do it. If I do it, I can provide things like med set up or vs. I could have used someone like this to help me manage my own home, family needs and need for respite when my dad moved in with brain CA. My husband use to joke and say I needed my own Brady "ALICE" to get through it. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Dee

[zahryia, LPN]

I like your idea. As you may know, some organizations offer this service.....I think for free, but I'm not sure. The 'doulas' are usually volunteers. So you definitely want to consider your competition, although I don't think this service is used on a widespread basis.

I really like the health/well-being education component. If you hire someone, they may not be comfortable doing the household duties, especially if they are educated.

I think you have a niche with the elderly and caregivers (of sickly relatives) who do not have the resources to hire a full-time or even a part-time aide. This would be more intermittent care to get a short break out of the house.

Go for it!

[dpw]

Thanks for replying Zahryia. You are correct about this being offered by some organizations. The hospice that we used for my dad would not provide an aide until it was nearly the end;about the last 5 days and an LPN over night. It seems that volunteers are few. Most people fear death, don't want to be around the dying, don't know what to say. I'm not too good to run a vacume or throw a load of laundry in the washer. These are the little things that people need.They show humanism. I chose 'doula' because it implies that one is the servant for a woman. Today, the care of our elderly or sick falls either to the daughter or to the wife of the son. They are still responsible to care for their own family; the sandwich generation, I think its called. I truely believe in caring for the whole person or family.I believe most families would like to care for their own if they could manage all the work and maintain quality of life for themselves, their children and the ill family member. I vision this person to be a companion who actively participates in the day to day to day, shares info, teaches through demonstration and modeling,offers support to the patient and family members, explains what is going on with various behaviors of those involved.Also part conciere; help with letter writing or what ever else they need. When I was looking for assistance for my dad, I was quoted $22-$25 per hour, with a 4 hour min. for HHA.I'm sure the aide made very little of that. I believe this would be a fair price to pay for one that has a specialized knowledge base and one who could help so much. Sorry this is so long, just thinking. Any other thoughts?

Thanks

[PNCC2001]

dpw,

I see that you wrote your post a couple years ago. Hopefully, you followed through on your idea. I definitely could have used a service like this, when my mom was in the hospital and I was caring for my dad; I also have children. I couldn't find any services that would help, because my parents aren't eligible for Medicaid.

[PNCC2001]

dpw,

Sorry, my mistake. I was looking at your join date, not your posting date, duh!

[*Pepper*]

Would there be a need to be licensed as a HHA agency to provide this type of service.

I expect it would be smart to have Liability Insurance.

Thanks.