Home Care Differences Between Grooming and Hygiene
Hygiene and Grooming: Home Care Westfield IN
When you’re looking into home care services for your mom, you keep seeing personal care services like help with grooming and assistance with hygiene. Aren’t grooming and hygiene the same thing? They’re similar, but there are differences that you should be aware of. One is more about how you look, while the other is about being healthy. It’s important to understand the differences to ensure you arrange the right services for your mom.
What Hygiene Entails
Care needs for hygiene are tasks that help with health and infection prevention. It’s about keeping germs from building up on the skin and other areas of the body. Think of hygiene as cleanliness. Hygiene includes washing your body in a shower, washing dirt from the hair, washing hands to stop the spread of disease, and cleaning up after using the toilet. Putting on appropriate clothing that is clean is part of a daily hygiene routine.
Changing bed sheets at least every two weeks is a hygienic task. As sheets build up bacteria and insects like dust mites, changing and laundering sheets is important. This is why families need to discuss housekeeping services in addition to personal care services.
Brushing and flossing her teeth are part of a daily hygiene routine. Taking care of her bridges or dentures is part of hygiene. Hygiene also includes making sure the skin isn’t dry and cracked or showing signs of infections or irritation, and applying lotions and creams that treat those issues.
What Grooming Entails
Grooming is an aspect of hygiene, but it’s not as strongly tied to infection and disease control. It’s more about how you look. For example, trimming your nails is a grooming task. It can be tied to hygiene if the toenails are so long that they cut other toes and cause open wounds that can be infected. But, the act of trimming nails is part of grooming. Pushing back or trimming cuticles is also part of grooming.
Trimming a mustache, beard, or shaving facial hair is grooming. Grooming tasks also include adding cologne after getting dressed, applying deodorant to prevent body odor, and styling the hair. Applying lip balm or facial moisturizer is part of grooming.
What Happens if Your Mom Needs Help?
Pay attention to your mom’s self-care. If you notice she smells, she’s likely not showering enough. Incontinence may be a concern, and that requires special care to prevent skin irritation and UTIs.
Your mom’s grooming and hygiene tasks must be supported as much as is necessary. She needs to be encouraged to maintain her independence, but she shouldn’t risk her safety trying to do things that have become too difficult. A home care advisor can answer your questions and get your mom set up with the home care services she needs.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Home Care in Westfield, IN, please call the caring staff at Home Services Unlimited. Serving the Greater Indianapolis Area. Call for Immediate Info & Assistance: (317) 471-0760.
As a practicing Registered Nurse, Etelka was keenly aware of a void in quality patient care that could be provided in the home. She embarked upon a journey to develop a home health care agency that would exceed all expectations and become a trusted partner to physicians and patients.
A Distinguished Career From Nurse to Director of Nursing to President of Home Services Unlimited
Etelka’s distinguished career followed a logical progression to her position as President of Home Services Unlimited. She graduated as a nurse practitioner with a Bachelor of Nursing (RN) in 1972 from Meshgorya University in the Ukraine, close to where she lived with her family. She married her husband Phil in 1973 and decided in 1977 that they would relocate to the United States to be closer to family and to come to this land of opportunity. With an eagerness to continue her budding career, Etelka sat for and passed her Boards in the U.S. in 1979.
A Love and Talent for Working with the Elderly
Etelka began her nursing career in the U.S. at Colonial Crest, now part of Golden Living, where she was the In-service Coordinator, the Director of Training and Education and Director of Nursing, a position she occupied for several years.
With a group of partners, she co-founded Adept Corporation, which operated group homes for the mentally challenged. The business was successful and in 1996, Etelka sold her share to return to her roots, caring for the elderly.
In January of 1997, Etelka opened Home Services Unlimited as a fully licensed business to provide home health care. In her quest to learn to do better for her patients, she had already obtained a Masters in Healthcare Administration (MHA) in May of 1990 from the College of St. Francis. As President of Home Services Unlimited, Inc., Etelka guides the trusted, experienced care model Home Services Unlimited uses to continue providing excellent home health care.
Giving Back to the Community of Indianapolis
Volunteering for community services is a high priority for Etelka. Her memberships include the Indiana Association of Rehabilitation Facilities, Executive Women in Health Care and the Indiana Association for Home and Hospice Care, where she is a member of the Board of Directors.
Etelka has also served on the Board of Directors with Hooverwood Home, a highly regarded geriatric facility, since 1997 and as the President for 2005-2006. Through her community work, she has received several awards and accolades, including the Nora McFarland award in 2002, from the Indiana Association of Home and Hospice Care.
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