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Bridging the Gap to Care at Home
“Healthcare to Homecare” – Designed to meet the needs of caregivers and care seekers struggling to discover how to adapt to providing healthcare at home.
Mission
Help for Those Learning to Cope with Healthcare Challenges at Home
Healthcare to Homecare (HTH) provides family caregivers and individuals recovering from personal health conditions or injuries with quick access to information on managing healthcare needs at home. The creator of HTH, Donna Steigleder, shares insights based on her experience as a family caregiver, registered nurse, and healthcare organization’s management team member. The materials presented focus on helping people with limited or no healthcare experience face the challenges of providing care (physical, emotional, or mental) to someone else.
What's Available?
Healthcare to Homecare is full of information on topics of interest for anyone providing care to another person or themselves. New caregivers have much to learn beginning their journey or as new symptoms or treatments develop. HTH presents information grouped into categories further separated by topics and articles. Caregivers can choose what they need and explore subject areas in greater depth. Categories link to subject areas using the main menu or clicking the “Learn More” buttons.
Mission
Over time, Donna gained a wealth of knowledge about caregiving, nursing care, and dealing with healthcare bureaucracy in caring for her husband. Others often approached her, asking for help on how to do things or where to go for resources.
After retiring, she knew she couldn’t stop servicing others that way. So, after many prayers and several positive signs from God, Donna created an online caregiver’s ministry providing resources and educational support to caregivers.
The “Mission” category provides insight into her faith and how it supported her during her trials and gave her the strength to keep going. She shares what she believes and Whom she trusts for strength; she reveals how she makes decisions, faces the future, and finds peace.
In addition, information about Donna, her family, and her credentials for creating this website is provided for review.
Understanding Caregiving
In 2020, 50% of Virginia caregivers reported they performed at least one type of procedure, usually performed by a registered nurse, in the home. In addition, the report concluded that the types and complexity of procedures performed in general are on the increase.
Gain insights into the broader world of caregiving as you read through the content of “Understanding Caregiving.” Find out about
- how “Family Relationships” impact caregiving,
- statistics on caregiving in the US and Virginia, and
- factors that influence a caregiver’s emotional adjustment to the role, including dealing with caregiver burnout.
With the advancement of Bundled Payments for Care Improvement, patients move through the healthcare system faster, with hospitals and long-term care facilities sharing the patient’s reimbursement cost. In addition, “Hospital at Home” programs are opening to promote early discharge and move patient recovery from the hospital to the home.
Starting Out
“Starting Out” as a caregiver seems overwhelming for many, with so much to learn quickly. The articles in this category guide how to change your focus from looking at the “forest” to focusing on the “tree.” Narrowing your focus helps reduce stress and make the project manageable.
Learn how to assess your needs, develop a plan and implement it successfully.
“How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”
In addition, gain a greater understanding of how healthcare systems function and why they must have rules that seem ridiculous to those who don’t work in healthcare. Sometimes understanding why something is needed helps make going along with the rules easier.
Interpersonal Skills
Caregiving is not limited to meeting physical needs. The caregiver must also develop new interpersonal skills to help them handle emotional outbursts, memory loss, or hallucinations. In addition, the one receiving care often has emotional, mental health, developmental, or memory disorders with or without a medical condition. Therefore, knowing what to say and how to say it to prevent a confrontation or decrease risks of harm in other ways is essential. Helpful guidelines and sample videos provide examples of ways to handle common behavioral challenges.
Procedural Skills
Shortly before hospital discharge, a healthcare professional may meet with you to show you how to care for a wound, tube, or something else once you get home. They usually leave a brochure summarizing what they shared and a phone number for future questions. At the time, what you need to do seems simple enough; however, the details become foggy and confusing after discharge.
“Procedural Skills” intends to help caregivers clear away the fog. Caregivers can access the steps whenever needed by providing videos of healthcare professionals in training performing similar procedures and having an outline of the process. In addition, seeing someone else perform the same task often helps reduce anxiety and provides encouragement during the early days of learning.
In addition to videos, “Procedural Skills” provides information about medical conditions, warning signs to signal the need to call for help, and tips for preventing setbacks. An entire section on how to give medications is offered for patients who receive medications. Examples of nearly every type of medication administration method possible and some specific medications are shown for your reference.
Caregiving Blog
HTH creator, Donna Steigleder, shares the trials and triumphs associated with her life as a family caregiver in her “Caregiving Blogs.” She knows the emotional rollercoaster of caregiving and how quickly tides can change.
As a parent, she experienced her child struggling through childhood with “invisible” disabilities (mental and physical). Unfortunately, invisible disabilities often go unrecognized by others, even close family members, frequently creating dysfunctional family units or leading to divorce. So it did in Donna’s home.
When Donna remarried, her second husband, Lynn, was diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis. She helped him adjust from being a vibrant craftsman, musician, and singer to becoming quadriplegic. The blogs represent her emotional response to that journey. Many are reprints from www.MultipleSclerosis.Net and www.MSCaregiverSharing.com.
Resources Caregivers Need
Few of us plan to become caregivers. Therefore, when we suddenly acquire the role, we have no idea where to get help. HTH keeps lists of resources caregivers often use.
- Government Affiliated Resources – Local, state, or federal government agencies and their affiliates that provide services to or on behalf of patients or caregivers.
- Community Supported Resources – Organizations that provide education and information about medical conditions, injuries, diseases, caregiving, or other support without charging a fee. (Note: I do not post multiple listings from the same organization for free due to space and time limitations)
- Services – (In Development) A list of companies providing services to caregivers useful in their daily lives or accomplishing their caregiving duties.
- Products – (In Development) Goods, equipment, and other merchandise (medical and non-medical) that caregivers may need.
In Development
Caregiving Related Products
Most caregivers don’t have time to search for products or services they need in more than one place. Therefore, HTH tries to give caregivers helpful information on where to find what they need.
Initially, resources for products and services will come through affiliation agreements Donna has with the company. With affiliation agreements, she receives a percentage of their total sales due to referrals from this website.
Companies who wish to advertise independently on a specific article or page may be able to do so, depending on the location. Contact Donna Steigleder for more information using the “Contact Me” form for details.
Having trouble knowing where to go for help? Try one of our resource pages.
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Fill out the subcription form below for more information on how to get your own free copy of our Medical History Form.
Mission
Mission Objectives
- To provide specific instructions for patient care procedures performed at home, including potential risks, troubleshooting, and tips.
- To provide suggestions related to managing life as a caregiver, including tips on finding resources, guidance on problem-solving, help with common daily routines, answers to dealing with outside agencies, etc.
- To provide encouragement and guidance to other caregivers by sharing how I coped with trials and struggles throughout my journey and the support received from God and others along the way.
Educational Purposes Only
Information provided on this website is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice. Consult an appropriate healthcare team member if you have specific medical concerns or questions. For healthcare emergencies, call 9-1-1. Disclaimer
If you wish to contact Donna Steigleder at Healthcare to Homecare, the email address is information@healthcaretohomecare.com.
