Eleanor Frenkel, the director of Visiting Homemaker Home Health Aide Service of Bergen County, is our guest blogger for the week of July 1, 2013. Her topic is retaining independence in your own home. Visiting Homemaker Home Health Aide Service is Bergen County’s only community based non profit home health aide agency and for close to 60 years it has been there for people who need help to remain safely at home.
Eleanor’s blog highlights the fact that the vast majority of seniors want to remain living in the comfort of their homes and their communities even if they become disabled.
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Seniors want to retain their regular routines and their independence. I know that is what I would want for myself. That’s why I am working to make sure that quality home care is available to our community’s elders.
Visiting Homemaker Service makes independent living possible. We provide a wide range of services to meet each person’s unique needs. Our skilled certified home health aides help with the tasks that people can no longer do for themselves. Each aide’s visit means that someone gets a nutritious meal; someone is bathed and helped to get dressed; someone has her bed linen changed; or can take a walk while safely holding on to a steady hand. The aides are warm and caring companions—for many isolated clients the aides are the only people who are there for them and who care about them.
Sometimes people have special needs and we offer customized services to address them. These include:
- Emergency Respite Care for family members who need relief
- Bath Service for people who only need bathing assistance
- Discharge Express to help people return home from the hospital or a procedure
- Occasion Care to help a frail senior attend a special event such as a wedding or graduation.
As a non profit we also offer grant funded programs such as CHEER which offers shopping and errands for isolated elders and the Senior Care Program which provides subsidized home health aide services for eligible individuals who cannot afford the cost of the help they need. We are very proud that we are succeeding in making it possible for senior citizens to fulfill their wishes to remain living at home. Despite disabilities and frailties of age, many of our seniors enjoy independent living for years- some for over a decade.
For seniors who are having trouble managing on their own and for families who are finding they cannot keep up with the demands of providing care — home care may be the answer. To learn more about the Visiting Homemaker Service or to make a referral call 201-488-0041 or email intake@vhsbc.com or by regular mail at:
298 Union Street, Hackensack, N.J. 07601.
Benjamin D. Eckman, Esq. concentrates his practice on Elder Law & Estate Planning. Elder law is intended to broadly assist “extended living”. An elder law practitioner provides the legal information necessary for persons whose lives will extend or have already extended beyond the time when all children are usually out of the house and when regular employment ceases. After the elder law attorney and client complete their work, legal documents have been drafted, tax considerations have been analyzed, and a plan to protect the elder’s estate has been implemented.
Benjamin D. Eckman’s practice focuses on Estate Planning & Elder Law – legal issues facing senior citizens. Benjamin D. Eckman received his Bachelor’s Degree in Business/Accounting from Touro College and his law degree from Seton Hall University School of Law. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association, the New Jersey State Bar Association, the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, the Elder Law Section and Real Property, Probate and Trust Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association, the Union County Bar Association, Passaic County Bar Association and the Bergen County Bar Association. He can be reached at (973) 709-0909, (908) 224-4357 or (201) 263-9161.
