New Brunswick Entrepreneur Connects Home Caregivers with the Help they Need
FREDERICTON – Karen Lake is all too familiar with issues in the home health care field.
A nurse for 28 years who has spent the last 20 years in the field, Lake is now helping family and friend caregivers access the services and support they need through her care navigator business Health at Home.
Lake says it’s often difficult for the families and friends of seniors, and others who need support to continue living their lives at home, to know exactly what type of help they need and how to find it.
“I typically work with families that are confused, overwhelmed, not sure where to start. Usually, they’re in the process of helping their parents plan for care,” she says.
She says one of the biggest hurdles of providing home health care for loved ones is the fact that many families no longer live in the same city as their loved ones. Lake says she’s further developing her program to support this type of situation.
“Maybe their work, their career, their family has taken them to another part of the world but their parents still remain here in New Brunswick,” she says. “That adds another level of complexity when you’re trying to organize things, let alone keep track of what’s happening back at home.”
The Health at Home process starts with a discovery call where Lake determines a family’s particular situation, then makes suggestions about possible next steps for the loved one’s care. She says this is sometimes all a family needs, simply a point to go forward from.
Other times, Lake will do an in-home assessment where she goes into the home environment of the loved one and does a health and safety assessment, looking at all areas of their health and wellness as well as the safety of their environment, then makes suggestions based on what she sees.
Lake says awareness of what’s available for home care support is a huge factor for these caregivers. She’s working to fill this gap in knowledge and awareness with Health at Home.
“There are all kinds of practitioners who support seniors at home. There are a lot of services in the community that a lot of times people don’t even know that they’re out there,” she says.
Lake says it’s important for seniors to continue to live at home not only because of the current strain on hospitals and nursing homes, but also because many of them want to continue to live their own lives as independently as possible.
“That’s where people want to be, to remain in their communities and engaged in activities, to be with their family, to be able to see their friends, to still be able to attend their church. It’s just what people want,” she says.
She explains that affordability is also a factor when it comes to being cared for at home and that since government only subsidizes up to eight hours of care per day at home, if a senior needs more care, they must make up the difference.
Lake says beyond the issue of affordability, the entire sector of support workers faces urgent issues. Because there is such a shortage of personal care workers, she says there should be a greater provincial strategy for recruitment and retention of these support workers.
“They are an instrumental care partner, these personal care workers because they’re the ones that help people get bathed, dressed, showered and out the door,” she says. “They’re doing exercises, they’re helping people to rehab, they’re reminding people to take their medication. They’re providing meals to people that otherwise probably wouldn’t eat.”
“They’re key to keeping people out of the hospital and out of the nursing homes. We really can’t ignore them … They need to earn more than $12 an hour. They have a huge responsibility. They need to have proper education and standards.”
Lake says this shortage of support workers is a part of the reason family caregivers need the additional support of a care navigator like hers. She is now organizing a caregiver wellness expo for September that she says will be the epitome of awareness by featuring representatives from numerous different care fields.
“Family caregivers are getting tired out and stressed out because they’re taking on so many responsibilities. That’s who I try to support,” she says.
“Those people are supporting an ageing loved one or someone who is in need of care but they don’t really know where to go. That’s what a care navigator does, they show them the way to go. That’s why I called it “the roadmap to success at home.” It’s meant to get you on a path with some structure.”