“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” — Quote by The Dalai Lama, Tibetan spiritual head.

 Young Malini Suri recently completed a home health aide course from her home town Madison in the lovely state of Wisconsin. While in school, she had come to the conclusion that she wanted to serve people and that was her true calling. A chat with the school guidance counselor and interaction with her parents who are both doctors convinced her that taking up the role of a home health aide would be an ideal fit for her. After completing the requisite intensive course, she applied for positions in various home care agencies and found a job right away with a leading agency in Michigan on account of her certification, compassion, eagerness, and zeal.

In this blog, we look at the role played by home health aides like Malini Suri as they embrace senior citizens with tender loving care. These trained aides provide valuable service to the elderly, differently-abled, those suffering from short term or chronic health conditions and those recovering from surgeries. Home health aides deal with a wide section of the population with different medical conditions.

The Role of Home Health Aides in Seniors health includes the following:

• Medicine management which includes reminding patients to take their medication and monitoring prescription & over-the counter medicines.
• Monitoring of the vitals and recording them. These vitals include blood pressure, temperature, pulse rate and oxygen levels in the body.
• Reminding and monitoring the consumption of a well-balanced diet cooked at home.
• Assisting the patient with the performance of exercise prescribed (indoors and outdoors) to improve overall well being, mobility and flexibility, as prescribed by the therapist or senior nurse.
• Help with basic personal grooming and hygiene such as bathing and dressing.
• Spending quality time with the patient and joining in activities such as playing games, reading, talking.
• Help the patient out of bed into a wheelchair and vice versa.
• Perform light housekeeping duties at times.
• Keeping a log of duties, improvements, challenges, solutions and collaboration with the senior nurse.
• A friend, a counselor and a sounding board for those who are lonely, stressed and in need of a friendly ear.
• Interact and coordinate with other medical professionals from time to time. The home health aide reports to the senior nurse, who further updates with needed interventions.
• Regular updates to all stakeholders such as family members, care agency and other medical professionals.

As we can see, certified home health aides play an important role in the lives of senior citizens, for however long they are required. Their range of duties involves an array of medical, health, and quality of life services.  Compassionate and caring aides like Malini bond with their clients and become surrogate family members, over a period of time. Home health aides are angels in disguise and god sent to help others.