How Can Residential Care Help Adults with Developmental Disabilities?
Developmental disabilities can affect your family member in terms of how she’s able to communicate, her mobility, and all of the other aspects of daily living. Adults with developmental disabilities can benefit from not only your help as a caregiver, but also from care providers who have experiences with their particular challenges.
Supporting Independent Living
Adults with developmental disabilities who live on their own may still need some support for activities of daily living. They may need help with cooking, with housekeeping tasks, or even with transportation. Some adults in this situation may only need a little bit of assistance to remain independent, but that need can fluctuate over time and as health changes.
Personal Care Support
Personal care tasks can be difficult for some family members with developmental disabilities to handle alone. These types of tasks can include getting ready for bed at night, showering, and grooming tasks. By having help from someone who has experience with these sorts of tasks, your family member is going to be safe and ensure that she’s got the help that she needs. This type of help is especially important if your family member has mobility issues.
Caregiver Support
As a caregiver to an adult with disabilities, you might feel a bit overwhelmed at times. There’s always something that needs to be done. Some of those tasks can change as your family member’s health changes, too. If there’s no one else for you to rely on regularly, you can find yourself reaching the end of both your time and your energy reserves each day.
Respite Care and Assistance
One of the most important solutions that care providers can offer for caregivers is respite care help. Every caregiver needs to be able to take a break, preferably a mix of longer and shorter breaks, and having experienced help makes that easier. When you know that your family member is in good hands, you can focus on whatever you need to do for yourself so that you’re ready to come back refreshed and recharged.
The best way to know for sure what residential care can do for your family member’s situation is to give it a try. Having experienced help can give your family member and you the boost that you need to get through those difficult days that can show up. Even the good days are better when you’ve got help on which you can rely.
If you are considering residential care for people with disabilities in Avon, IN, please call the caring staff at RSI Cares. Serving Greater Indianapolis Area. Call for Immediate Info & Assistance: 317-471-0750.
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 shewasthe 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.
Etelka was honored as a “Health Care Hero” by the Indianapolis Business Journal. The issue can be read online here:
http://mags.ibj.com/activemagazine/welcome/html/ibjhch.html.
After clicking on the link, then click on the image of the issue’s front page. After that, you can browse through the issue or click in a box near the top of your internet browser to adjust the page to 17, which is where Etelka’s article appears.
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