Yes there really is ‘No Place Like Home’. For 40 years now Fingal Home Care CLG has been delivering personalised Home Care services in North County Dublin and South East Meath.. We understand better than most that people wish to remain in their own homes for as long as they can. Being around loving family members, familiar objects, adored pets, and sleeping in one’s own bed is certainly comforting. We know that home is not just a place, it is a feeling.
However, staying at home is not just all about having one’s own cozy bed, it’s about remaining connected. Receiving home care will enable you or your loved one to remain in the neighbourhood you love, with all the familiar surroundings of your local shop, community or religious groups.
Services We Can Offer You At Home
Personal Care:
- Personal Hygiene
Washing/Showering/Bathing/Oral Hygiene – Our Carers will always treat you with dignity and respect, and are fully aware that whether you are new to personal care or have had these services for many years, it is never easy to accept that you require help in this regard. We promise to treat you with the utmost dignity and respect and at all times be mindful of a service users’ modesty. We never, ever assume that a person ‘gets used to it’.
- Toileting
Our Carers can assist you with your toileting needs and only remain in the bathroom at your request, or when deemed absolutely necessary for health and safety reasons. We can assist you to transfer on and off the toilet and taking care of any incontinence needs.
- Dressing
When you get dressed and undressed, we’ll do the bending and fastening of buttons, zips and shoe laces, and make sure you are not in danger of trips or falls. We’ll even have all your clean clothes heating on the radiator ready for when you get out of the shower or bath.
- Mobility and Transferring
Our Carers can assist you to transfer safely with the appropriate moving aids, including hoisting (always requires two carers). Whether it is getting in and out of bed, the shower, or from a chair to your wheelchair.
- Meal Preparation
An important element of our personal home care services is the help our Carers provide with eating and drinking. We can prepare a healthy, nutritious meal for you from scratch, a delicious sandwich or simply heat up a prepared meal. We can even keep an eye on the fridge so you will never be eating old, out-of-date food. We can also assist you with special preparation requirements such as blending foods or thickening liquids, exactly how you like it (as medically directed).
- Prompting Medication
As you will know some medications need to be taken at the same time every day. Our Carers can remind you to take your medicine from your blister packs (your pharmacist can do this for you). Our Carers provide non-medical care in the home and so are not permitted to administer medication to you.
Personal Assistance:
Our Personal Assistants Service is all about you! The major difference between a Personal Assistant (P.A.) and a Carer is that in the case of a P.A. the service is designed by the service user directly. It’s about promoting choice and being independent. You tell us about your needs and where, when and how you would like some assistance. This Service is about Promoting Choice – Your Choice.
Our P.A. Service Can Offer You:
- Assistance with Personal Care to get you up and ready for the day.
- Travel assistance getting to work/college.
- Social or Family Occasions .
- Shopping or running errands.
- Assistance with Household Tasks.
At Fingal Home Care we continually promote the principle of independent living and that means we will assist you in the manner that you require, and not taking over and doing tasks that you would rather and can do yourself. We are here to help you to stay in your own home.
We can provide personal care visits for as little as half an hour up to several hours per day according to your needs.
Advanced Care/High Dependency Care:
A chronic condition is a human health condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long-lasting in its effects. While they can affect people of all ages, many chronic conditions can be successfully managed to minimise the severity of the symptoms and the impact on a person’s life, particularly through effective use of medication, exercise, improved nutrition and social interaction. The term chronic is usually applied when the course of the disease lasts for more than six months
At Fingal Home Care we know that chronic illness can be better managed in a well-developed multi-disciplinary primary care setting, provided the necessary supports are in place for the service user and their Carers. Our Carers have a wealth of experience in dealing with all high-dependency illnesses and can provide every service user with the expert help and support that they need, including:
- Getting you up/washed and dressed for the day
- Skin Care / Preventing Skin Breakdowns
- Preventing Bed Sores / Correct Positioning in Bed
- Hoisting & Transferring – ensuring your safety at all times
- Meal Preparation
- Catheter and Colostomy Care
- Prompting and Medication Management
- Assistance with Daily Exercise Routines
- Companionship and Conversation
- Enabling Social Interaction/Inclusion
- Shopping – assistance getting out and about
- Home Help Services
Alzheimer’s / Dementia Care:
Alzheimer’s’ disease is the most common and well-known cause of dementia. A diagnosis of dementia for a loved one can be utterly devastating to a family, often compounded by what we hear of others experience or simply what we envision when we hear the word ‘dementia’. Once you and your family have had time to digest and understand the diagnosis, you are then in a position to PLAN and GET HELP & SUPPORT;
How Can Fingal Home Care Help?
- Carers are trained in Alzheimer’s / Dementia Care
- Personal Care – Toileting/Bathing/Oral Hygiene
- Dressing Assistance – helping with zips, buttons, laces etc.
- Meal Preparation / Special Feeding Requirements
- Prompting Medication
- Supervision, Conversation and Companionship
- Reassurance, Support and Comfort
- Activities that your parent/loved one enjoys such as scrapbooking, painting, flower arranging or simply enjoying looking at old photo albums
- Reading books or newspapers
Palliative Care:
As those of us who have had the misfortune to lose a loved one though a terminal illness, this is without doubt the saddest and most heart-breaking time of our lives. Nothing can quite prepare you for the absolute shock, disbelief and sadness of what lies ahead.
Fingal Home Care is here to help you and your family during this very difficult time. Any Carer that we send to your home will be highly skilled and experienced in palliative care. Our Carers will be mindful of the great sadness in your home, and will always carry out their duties quietly and respectfully. Needless to say our Palliative Carer teams are abundant in qualities such as empathy, kindness, caring, listening skills, understanding family boundaries and making their presence as least intrusive as possible at a time when your family time with your loved one is so precious.
How Fingal Home Care Can Help:
- Assist with all Personal Care needs such as bathing, toileting, oral hygiene, catheter or colostomy care and dressing.
- Prompting medication and application of pain management, as directed by GP.
- Running errands for family such as shopping or going to the pharmacy for medication.
- Special Food Preparation e.g. blending or thickening (as medically directed).
- Meal Preparation
- Home Help Services.
- Support, Comfort and Companionship.
- Reading books or newspapers to the service user.
Autism/Intellectual Disability Services:
At Fingal Home Care we can offer an additional support service to children, parents and families living with Autism/Intellectual Disabilities. Whether your child is pre-school, attending primary or secondary school we have trained Carers who can assist you in your home.
Autism is a neuro-developmental disorder that affects the development of the brain in areas of social interaction and communication and is marked by severe difficulties in communicating and forming relationships with people, in developing language and in using abstract concepts. Characteristics include repetitive and limited patterns of behaviour and obsessive resistance to tiny changes in familiar surroundings or routines.
Autism is often referred to as the ‘hidden’ disability because people who are on the autistic spectrum show no significant physical difference to their peers, rather it is their behaviours that mark them out as different.
We have developed specific Client Diaries for our Autism Clients, which give a detailed summary on communication skills, any special needs, likes/dislikes and learning targets. So if your designated Carer is on leave, your alternate Carer will have clear and concise details on the individual care plan. We also carry out a detailed health and safety risk assessment prior to commencement of care, to ensure that our clients are kept safe and well.
Fingal Home Care have specially trained Carers who possess both first hand personal experience of a child with Autism, extensive knowledge and training in Autism.