Unskilled (non-medical/custodial)

Unskilled (non-medical) care generally refers to companion and personal care activities, such as bathing, grooming, dressing, as well as assistance with meal preparation, light housekeeping, and running errands. It could also include medication reminders, assistance with ambulation, and transportation to medical appointments. These types of services are typically provided by Personal Care Aides (PCA), Home Health Aides (HHA) or Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA).

Skilled (medical)

Skilled medical care is provided by licensed professionals, including nurses, physical, occupational, speech and respiratory therapists, mental health professionals and hospice care. Skilled medical services are ordered by a physician, and care follows a specific plan under the supervision of a physician, registered nurse or therapist for a determinate period of time based on medical need. Skilled medical care in the home can provide a comforting alternative to a hospital or nursing home stay. Skilled care is typically covered by insurance, while non-skilled services are generally paid privately.

The cost is generally dependent on a number of variables, such as hours of engagement, length of engagement, proximity to the caregiver’s home and services requested. YourLife Referral Service does not set caregiver fees. The company Owner can review your options and discuss estimated costs with you at your free initial consultation. Ultimately, you and your caregiver determine the cost of care.

While most forms of long-term care insurance cover in-home care, the YourLife Referral Service Owner or an individual from our professional team can help you confirm if your specific policy includes in-home care coverage. Please contact our office for further information.

YourLife Referral Service realizes that in a typical home-care arrangement, very little time in a 24-hour day is dedicated solely to medical-related care.  Rather than placing an emphasis on a client’s medical issues or needs, we strive to refer caregivers who focus on the “living” part of each day to ensure that the client’s day is filled with meaningful, enjoyable and fulfilling activities.  The caregivers we seek to refer are those who view their services as part of a “life plan” more than a “care plan.”

No. Nursing homes and hospitals use the term “care plan,” or “nursing care plan,” to denote a set of actions a nurse will take to resolve or support nursing medical diagnoses identified by a nursing assessment.

YourLife Referral Service does not create a “plan of care.” It will meet with you to ascertain the type of caregiver and the type of home care YOU initially request, to enable it to refer to you caregivers who best match your preferences. But once you commence working with a referred caregiver, you and the caregiver will determine the home-care arrangement you desire or, in other words, a daily life plan.  The caregivers YourLife Referral Service seeks to refer are those who are highly attentive to a client’s medical needs, but their main focus is on enhancing a client’s quality of life by assisting with the execution of activities, etc. that bring meaning and joy to the client.

Following the initial meeting between a client and YourLife Referral Service’s owner, we endeavor to carefully select and refer caregivers to the client based on the client’s stated caregiver preferences and criteria. If the client finds that he/she doesn’t “connect” with any of the referred caregivers, the client is always welcome to end that relationship and request a referral for an alternate caregiver from our extensive database of caregivers.

For safety purposes, at your request, it is our pleasure to make special arrangements to ensure that you are confident that a caregiver who initially arrives at your home to care for your wife is the same caregiver who was referred to you, so you will always be comfortable welcoming them into your home.  Because we meticulously screen and verify the backgrounds of the caregivers we refer through local and national databases, you can have confidence that we strive to only refer to you and your family one of the area’s best and safest caregivers.

Clients have the unrestricted ability to end a caregiver relationship at any time. Clients also can request referrals of alternate caregivers at any time. YourLife Referral Service cannot terminate a client’s home-care relationship with a referred caregiver; only the client or the caregiver can. This means you never need to worry about a referred caregiver being taken away from you and moved to a different client by YourLife Referral Service. As a referral source, we cannot and do not engage in that type of practice. While we strive to refer a consistent team of care providers so that the positive and mutually respectful relationship between the client and caregiver can continually evolve to meet the client’s changing needs and preferences, you may terminate a caregiver and request a replacement referral at any time.

Contracts with YourLife Referral Service technically may be terminated with at least 48 hours’ written or verbal notice and without further financial obligation after the date of termination (beyond fees already incurred). But as a practical matter, a client has no financial obligation to YourLife Referral Service (beyond fees already incurred) unless the client is accepting services from a caregiver referred by YourLife Referral Service, regardless of whether the contract remains in effect.

We can help!  From our extensive database of caregivers, we try to find and refer to you the caregivers we believe will be best suited to assist you, based on your caregiver preferences and criteria.  Our Owner will meet with you (and/or your family or representative, if you wish) to discuss your needs and preferences. Based on this information that you provide, we will endeavor to refer the caregivers we believe will best meet your criteria.

Your husband can most certainly avail himself of our referral services and Hospice concurrently. While Hospice personnel will create the initial care plan and will visit periodically, we can refer caregivers who can assist your husband in executing the Hospice care plan and, more importantly, focus on activities that will help your husband enjoy his life.

We can refer a caregiver who can assist your husband during any time period to which your husband and the caregiver agree, regardless of the time of day or the duration of the engagement.

Similar to respite care, Your Life Referral Service can refer a caregiver who is willing to provide services in your home for any period of time, whether for short periods or on a longer-term basis. Our Owner can meet with you and your wife prior to your travel to discuss her needs and preferences and then refer a caregiver who best matches your preferences and is willing to care for her while you are away.

Yes, we can refer caregivers who travel with clients. Our Owner will meet with you prior to your scheduled date of departure to review your itinerary, discuss your specific needs and preferences, and work to refer a caregiver who is well-suited to both your husband and you, and is interested in traveling with you. (If international travel is anticipated, please allow as much notice as possible in the event the referred caregivers need to obtain appropriate travel documents.)