A caregiver is anybody who helps another person who is in need. Family caregivers and respite caregivers are only two of the many different types of caregivers accessible. Caregivers may provide comfort and support to people in need. Their help may be short or lasting, but it is always appreciated. Let’s take a closer look at who a caregiver is, duties, salary, agreement, and course.
What Is a Caregiver
A Personal Caregiver assists patients who have difficulty performing basic duties, such as those with impairments, the elderly, or patients suffering from mental problems. Their primary responsibilities include giving prescriptions, assisting patients with personal care chores such as washing, dressing, eating, or grooming, and adhering to the patients’ recommended healthcare plan.
Caregivers help their clients with daily tasks and spend time with them. They don’t do anything medical. Instead, guardians add their own special touch. As they help seniors with day-to-day tasks that they might not be able to do on their own anymore, they become close to them. A caregiver can help adults who wouldn’t be able to live on their own otherwise with things like bathing, going to the store, and even making their meals.
Who you need to help your loved ones will depend on their specific wants and circumstances. A senior might need both a nurse and a caregiver to come into the home each week.
What Is a Caregiver Duties
No matter how much a caregiver loves the person they are caring for, their duties are not simple, and as the person they are caring for ages, they become much more challenging.
The following are the duties of a caregiver:
- Personal care assistance: washing and grooming, clothing, toileting, and exercise.
- Basic food preparation: meal preparation, grocery shopping, housekeeping, laundry, and other tasks.
- General health care: monitoring medication and prescription consumption, appointment reminders, and drug administration.
- Mobility aid: assistance with getting into and out of a wheelchair, automobile, or shower.
- Personal supervision: regular company as well as general oversight.
- Transportation: transportation to and from activities, conducting errands, and assistance getting into and out of a wheelchair-accessible vehicle.
- Emotional assistance: being a consistent companion and supporter in all situations. personal, medical, and emotional
- Caring for the elderly: orienting or grounding someone suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, as well as transmitting information from a doctor to family members.
- Back-up care (or respite) services: offering a break for other carers.
- Home organization: assistance with arranging, packing, and cleaning for a vacation, as well as routine house maintenance and cleaning.
- Health monitoring: entails adhering to a care plan and observing any changes in the individual’s health, as well as recording and reporting any deviations.
Read Also: NANNY JOB DESCRIPTION: Duties, Responsibilities & Salary
What Is a Caregiver Agreement
A caregiver agreement is a legally enforceable agreement, also known as a long-term care personal support services agreement, elder care contract, family care or caregiver contract, or family care or caregiver contract. It is commonly referred to as a personal care agreement. This arrangement can provide family caregivers with the assurance that they will not face financial hardship. At the same time, the agreement can provide your loved one with the assurance that she or he has a loving advocate managing care requirements.
The agreement is often a contract between a family member who promises to provide caregiver services for a handicapped or elderly relative and the individual receiving care. Personal care agreements are often entered into between an adult child and his or her parent, however, other relatives may be included, such as an adult grandchild caring for a grandmother.
An agreement specifies for a family what responsibilities are anticipated in exchange for a certain remuneration. It can assist to avoid family feuds about who will provide care and how much money will be exchanged. As a result, before drafting an agreement, it should be addressed with other family members to address any concerns.
When entering into a contract with a family member, it is best to approach the agreement as a legal instrument. If your relative receives state-funded in-home care, the agreement will specify where the money will be spent and what services will be delivered.
Furthermore, a caregiver agreement can alleviate any disagreement among family members worried about bequests to heirs and minimize subsequent misunderstandings over the reduction in the amount of money that may be inherited.
Read Also: PERSONAL CARE ASSISTANT: Job Description, Salary & More
Caregiver Salary
- The average salary for a caregiver is £11.74 per hour in the United Kingdom and approximately £29,000 per year while most experienced workers make up to $33,700 per year.
- The average salary for a caregiver is $15.63 per hour in the United States and approximately $30,800 per year while most experienced workers make up to $37,050 per year.
Read Also: HOME HEALTH AIDE: All You Need to Know
Caregiver Course
#1. Advance Learning: Introduction to Caregiving
Learn about caregiving skills such as legal and ethical duties, as well as teamwork.
This free online Caregiver training course will provide you with an understanding of the fundamentals of caregiving, including legal and ethical obligations and teamwork. Caregivers are highly appreciated and in-demand professionals who make a significant contribution to the health organizations for which they work. This course will walk you through all of the fundamental principles so that you may jumpstart your caregiving career right now.
Course Publisher
- Advance Learning
This Free Online Course Includes:
- 1.5-3 Hours of Learning
- CPD Accreditation
- Final Assessment
#2. EdApp: Free Online Caregiver Courses – Mental Health & Resiliency in Aged Care Facilities
Caring for others can have a negative impact on your caregivers’ mental and emotional health. It’s critical to be mindful of stress factors and the hazards they can face in this line of work. Mental Health & Resiliency in Aged Care Facilities is a free microlearning course that helps caregivers increase their mental health awareness and promote their emotional resilience. This free online caregiver course covers the 3R’s paradigm of resistance, resiliency, and recovery, as well as mental health concerns and how to develop resilience. It concludes by listing several mental health hotlines in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
This course is easier to follow compared to your average online courses, thanks to EdApp’s user-friendly microlearning model. With microlearning, big chunks of information are chopped down to their bite-sized versions. This gives your learners an easier time to digest the training and retain the knowledge better.
Course Publisher
- EdApp
This Free Online Course Includes:
- The 3R’s model
- Mental health risks at work
- Fostering resiliency
- Mental health hotlines (USA, UK, Australia)
#3. EdApp Free Online Caregiver Courses – Understanding Dementia
Caregiving for dementia patients has specific challenges that caregivers face. For this reason, it’s important that caregivers are prepared with the essential skills and information before caring for patients with this illness. This free online caregiver course will teach them about what dementia is and the effect of dementia on people’s lives. It also tackles how they need to take care of their health while caring for someone suffering from dementia, how to properly interact with the patients, and how to provide good caregiving at various stages of dementia. By learning these topics, they’ll be able to provide better quality care for patients who are struggling already with living a normal life.
Gamification and microlearning tactics used in this NY free caregiver course help with developing better knowledge retention. Partnered with EdApp’s platform-friendly software, your caregivers can take their interactive training anywhere and anytime they want, making learning convenient and easy.
Course Publisher
- EdApp
This Free Online Course Includes:
- What is dementia
- Caregiver mental health
- Communicating with patients
- Caregiving for different stages of dementia
#4. EdApp: Free Online Caregiver Courses – Mealtime Management
Mealtime management is critical to guaranteeing your patients’ wellness. If your caregivers don’t manage meals properly, it can make your patients’ recovery slower or even cause their disorders to become worse. Regardless of the illness, your caregivers need to be able to provide the best possible care for patients who have difficulty fulfilling their dietary needs – whether due to dysphagia, intellectual difficulties, or an inability to be fed orally. That’s why EdApp’s Mealtime Management course is perfect for your learners.
This free online caregiver course introduces them to the fundamentals of good nutrition, mealtime management for dysphagic patients, and enteral nutrition or more commonly known as tube feeding. The training lists down the importance of mealtime management and the steps your caregivers can take to improve their current management process. After taking this course and applying what they’ve learned, you’ll be able to see improvements not only in their mealtime management practices but also in your patients’ health as well.
Course Publisher
- EdApp
This Free Online Course Includes:
- Effective nutrition for people with disabilities
- Managing dysphagia
- Mealtime management for patients with dysphagia
- Enteral nutrition