Personal care is hands-on help with the daily activities that keep a person clean, dressed, fed and moving safely at home. Advanced Care provides non-medical personal care for older adults and adults with disabilities in southeast Wisconsin.
It goes beyond companionship and home help. It is for people who need a hand with daily living, or who can no longer do some things on their own because of illness, injury, surgery or disability.
What Personal Care Includes
A caregiver’s visit is built around the care plan. Personal care can include:
- Hygiene assistance, including help with bathing
- Dressing and undressing
- Transfer and mobility help: transfers, help with walking, fall prevention and range of motion exercises
- Medication reminders
- Meals: meal preparation and feeding assistance
- Light housekeeping
- Rides and company to medical appointments
Many clients also use companion care for conversation, errands and outings.
Who Personal Care Helps
Most of our clients are older adults who want to stay at home. We also help adults and children with physical or mental disabilities, chronic health conditions, or who are recovering from a major injury or surgery.
Our team includes bilingual members for Spanish-speaking families.
Trained Caregivers With Nurse Oversight
Our Personal Care Assistants get in-house training and skill development directly from our professional nurses. Caregivers are asked to report any noteworthy change in a client’s condition.
Our nurses do bi-monthly wellness assessments and an annual comprehensive assessment for each client, to check that clients are getting the care they need.
What Personal Care Does Not Include
Advanced Care is a non-medical in-home care agency. We do not provide wound care, medical equipment, physical therapy or occupational therapy. If your loved one needs those, their doctor can point you to the right provider. Our caregivers can help with the daily tasks around that care.
How Personal Care Starts
Starting care follows four steps:
- An initial phone consultation to talk about your loved one’s care needs.
- An in-home assessment by a registered nurse. This can also be done over Zoom if you ask.
- The nurse makes a recommendation and builds a personalized plan of care.
- Care begins, followed by bi-monthly nurse evaluations.
Consultations and assessments before care begins are free. Read more on how it works.
Paying for Personal Care
Advanced Care accepts Medicaid, most HMOs, managed care organizations and other government programs, long-term care insurance, and private pay. Medicaid is our primary payment method. See ways to pay for details, or learn how a relative can be paid to give care through the family caregiver program.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is personal care?
Personal care is non-medical, hands-on help with daily activities such as hygiene, bathing, dressing, moving around the home, meals and medication reminders.
Is personal care the same as companion care?
No. Companion care focuses on conversation, errands and outings. Personal care adds hands-on help with hygiene, dressing, mobility and medication reminders.
Who trains Advanced Care’s caregivers?
Our Personal Care Assistants get in-house training and skill development from our professional nurses.
Does a nurse check on my loved one?
Yes. Our nurses do bi-monthly wellness assessments and an annual comprehensive assessment for each client.
Does Medicaid pay for personal care?
Advanced Care accepts Medicaid as its primary payment method. Whether a person qualifies for Medicaid is decided by the program, not by Advanced Care.
Request a free consultation to talk about personal care at home, or call our Mequon office at 262-236-9194 or our Mount Pleasant office at 262-880-1079.
