What is Participant Assistance and Care?
Participant Assistance and Care, abbreviated PAC, is a type of care that offers support and hands-on help with a variety of situations for people with developmental disabilities. Whether your family member needs a little bit of help or a lot more assistance, PAC can often make a huge difference.
Assistance with Personal Care Tasks
Personal care tasks, like bathing and dressing, might be difficult due to developmental disabilities. On her own, those tasks might be ones that take all day to accomplish or are impossible. With just a little bit of help, though, your family member might be able to handle those tasks.
Help Completing Daily Chores
Beyond personal care tasks there are also daily chores and other tasks that need to be handled, like running errands, paying bills, and dealing with mail. Making the bed and dealing with dishes after eating also fall into this category. If your family member only needs a little guidance staying on task, this might be the way to help her.
Assistance with Mobility Concerns
Some developmental disabilities come with mobility trouble, which can present even larger problems for your family member. Participant Assistance and Care offers help navigating those challenges both at home and out in public. This might involve learning how to use new mobility assistance tools, too.
Troubleshooting Assistive Technologies
Assistive technologies are wonderful when they work properly, but sometimes they need troubleshooting. Your family member may not be able to do that troubleshooting, which can leave her without the assistive technology she relies on daily. PAC services can help with this.
Transportation Assistance
Getting where she needs to go is important for your family member, too. And if other family members aren’t available to help with transportation, that can be a problem. Participant Assistance and Care personnel are well-versed in helping your family member with her specific needs.
Help with Behavioral Goals
Your family member may have some behavioral goals, as well. It’s difficult to meet those sometimes, but with patient and experienced help, your family member can learn techniques that help her to cope. Those techniques can also help her to get closer to achieving those goals.
With just a little bit of help, your family member can get the support that she needs to live an independent and fulfilled life. Her needs may continue to change over time, but with PAC, she can still get the help she needs.
If you are considering residential habilitation services in Greenfield, 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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