Home care, (also referred to as domiciliary care or social care), is health care or supportive care provided in the patient's home by healthcare professionals (often referred to as home health care or formal care). Often, the term home care is used to distinguish non-medical care or custodial care, which is care that is provided by persons who are not nurses, doctors, or other licensed medical personnel, as opposed to home health care that is provided by licensed personnel.
Licensed personnel and other persons who assist the individual may be referred to as caregivers. Caregivers may help the individual with such daily tasks as bathing, eating, cleaning the home and preparing meals.
For terminally ill patients, home care may include hospice care. For patients recovering from surgery or illness, home care may include rehabilitative assistance.
Read more about Home Care: Research and Program Accreditation
Famous quotes containing the words home and/or care:
“You can’t appreciate home till you’ve left it, money till it’s spent, your wife till she’s joined a woman’s club, nor Old Glory till you see it hanging on a broomstick on the shanty of a consul in a foreign town.”
—O. Henry [William Sydney Porter] (1862–1910)
“Take care to sell your horse before he dies. The art of life is passing losses on.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)