The use of home help for an elderly or sick person
Statistics show that the French are living longer and in better health. It is for this reason that the State encourages the maintenance of sick and elderly people at home by promoting the emergence of home help companies or associations. Thanks to professionals specialized in personal assistance, many people who have lost some autonomy without needing medical assistance can now benefit from daily home help.
These are’how to finance this type of service.
What is home help?
In addition to medical and paramedical care, people who are covered by a health insurance plan must also be able to benefit from the same level of coveragea home help can receive assistance in various areas of daily life to make up for a lack of autonomy.
Help with household chores
The first difficulty encountered by the insureds is the lack of information elderly or sick people When a person begins to lose some of his or her autonomy, it is to perform household tasks. When one loses mobility progressively, one tends to have difficulty in maintaining one's home. However, home helpers offer cleaning and ironing services and even maintenance of outdoor spaces to ensure that the person lives in a clean and tidy environment.
Firstly, it avoids accidents of everyday life such as falls, but also diseases related to the proliferation of bacteria.
Help for autonomy
When the loss of autonomy prevents the person from carrying out the essential gestures of daily life, it is possible to call upon a home assistance company to help the beneficiaries to get up or to lie down, to wash, to do the shopping or to cook. Help with meals can also consist of a simple home delivery of meals. When the need arises, the home helpers also offer staff to perform night guards.
Help with administrative tasks
When carrying out daily administrative procedures becomes complicated, it is essential to call upon professionals to accompany people who feel the need to do so. Some home helps are specialized in handling administrative tasks to simplify the life of the beneficiaries. It can be the mail processing on a daily basis various statements (taxes), or medical and social formalities.
The daily accompaniment
Sometimes, a person's health can be a simple matter of need for company. Loneliness can have dramatic consequences for elderly or sick people. We have seen this in recent months during the first confinement in France.
Home helpers also offer to accompany people on outings, walks or to take them to leisure activities. These services are essential for people who are alone or far from their loved ones, because social isolation is sometimes the source of many psychological problems.
How to finance home help services ?
There are many ways to pay for all or part of the cost of home help services when the pathology does not justify coverage by social security or by the mutual insurance company. This is the case for the personalized autonomy allowance for the elderly or the disability compensation benefit for disabled people. Other aids can be received as part of the aid for returning home after hospitalization.
Home help services can be paid with universal service vouchers (CESU). This is a scheme set up by the State that makes it easier for individuals to employ regular home service providers. The system of declaration of charges is simplified as well as the system of remuneration for these providers.
The advantage of these employment service vouchers is that they allow a tax credit of 50% up to a maximum of 12,000 euros per year.
For people who help and assist their loved ones at home, there are specific supports for caregivers under the right to respite and caregiver leave.
Finally, local authorities can offer additional assistance to people in need of such care and who are in a precarious situation. To know your rights, do not hesitate to contact a social worker.
Today, home help companies also offer to take charge of your file to examine your rights in order to finance this type of service more easily.