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 | Community Connections | Winter 2019

Similarly, Good Shepherd Health 
Care System’s (GSHCS) Home 
Health and Vange John Memorial 
Hospice department has been 
caring out acts of benevolence for 
community members. But there 
always seems to be more they have 
to offer, as GSHCS Home Health 
and Hospice Manager, Heather 
Osborne can attest, “There is a 
common misconception of what 
Home Health can provide. Almost 
on a daily basis, our teams receive 
calls from community members 
who have an interest and desire 
for us to help with their personal 
caregiving needs. However, Home 
Health requires a skilled need only 
a nurse and physical/occupational/
speech therapy can offer. If these 
skilled need that are needed in the 
home, then we can provide a bath 
aide, but only for the duration of  
the skilled need.”

“Over the past 12 months, we have 
had an increase in inquiries for 
home caregivers. With no other 
home caregiver agency services 
in the community, we saw a 
need, decided to take action and 
created a service the community 
was requesting. Personal Home 
Caregiving is a great addition to the 

services Good Shepherd offers our 
community,” continued Osborne.

So if a physician’s order is needed 
to meet specific home health 
needs, what can a Personal Home 
Caregiver provide? According to Ms. 
Osborne, Personal Home Caregivers 
can provide non-skilled services 
such as bathing, personal grooming 
and hygiene, dressing, shopping 
and errands, mobility, nutrition, 
hydration and feeding, laundry, 
medication assistance, toileting, 
housekeeping, medical appointment 
assistance, and transportation 
assistance.

“Personal Home Care services can 
be used for a variety of needs,” 
shared GSHCS Vice President 
of Nursing, Theresa Brock, “For 
instance, if your mom is in need 
of one-on-one feeding assistance 
at her assisted living residence 

Personal Home Care

In her book, No Place 

Like Home, Karen Buhler-

Wilkerson, PhD, RN, FAAN, 

shares, “The earliest US 

efforts to care for the sick at 

home (1813) were motivated 

by a tradition of religious 

benevolence among wealthy 

ladies of Charleston, S.C., who 

entered homes of the poor 

and dependent to provide 

care and domestic comfort.”

during lunchtime, the personal 
home caregiver can come to that 
facility and assist mom with lunch, 
assist her to eat, assist her to clean 
up and then assist her back to her 
apartment. Or maybe you just had 
a surgery and you need someone 
to come in and assist you with 
bathing or doing laundry for a week. 
Another example is maybe you have 
an elderly parent living with you and 
they need some companionship, 
someone to take them out to lunch 
and even to a movie. Really, we 
are able to accommodate many 
circumstances to help care for  
your needs.”

Good Shepherd Personal Home 
Care caregivers can assist private 
pay and Medicaid clients. Some 
private insurances do pay for this 
service and if it is a covered benefit, 
they would be able to bill a client’s 
insurance on the client’s behalf. 
Initial assessments are completed 
by a registered nurse. Care could 
begin the next day – pending 
staffing and needs. 

For more information regarding 
Good Shepherd Personal Home 
Care please contact Karina 
Torres, Office Coordinator and 
Referral Intake at 541.667.3469.

Back starting from the left is: Jackie Hoskins, Reva Ferguson, Stephanie Samuel, 

Karina Torres, Chelsea Gutierrez, Shelly Lyons, Crystal Fowler, Marijane Koenig.   

Front left to right is Teresa Resendiz, Tonya Wilson, Sommer  Kinnan.