Home health aides are home health care workers who can perform a variety of personal care needs such as bathing, dressing, grooming and medication reminders. Often, patients feel like the home health aide has become "one of the family". When Medicare pays for a home health aide, the visit is usually for bed/bath care. Hiring a private duty home care aide provides greater flexibility in the amount of time and service the aide can provide.

The following tips will help you prepare for care from a home health aide:

	Consult with all members of the caregiving team, such as doctors, nurses, home health aides, therapists, social workers and family members, to identify and develop an effective strategy.
	Make a list of clearly written emergency phone numbers: police, fire department, ambulance, physicians, dentist and other health care providers, pharmacist, home and work number of grown children and the phone number of a close neighbor.
	Make a list of helpful phone numbers: the market, library, repairmen, clergymen, other relatives, grandchildren and friends.
	Make a list of your likes and dislikes including food preferences, TV programs, outings and routines.
	Make a list of all medications and the times they are to be taken. (Note: Home health aides do not administer medications. They can, however, remind patients when to take their medications.)
	Make a list of what you would like to accomplish on a daily basis such as eating meals, bathing, changing clothes, an exercise regime and getting outdoors. Also make a list of questions you have for your caregiver.
	If you need help moving from bed to chair or to the bathroom, provide equipment that will make home care easier – electric bed, wheelchair, walker, bed rails, etc.
	Make sure the home health caregiver has a place to put his or her belongings.
	Encourage a good relationship with the home health aide. Allow the caregiver to express her own ways of doing things and always let the person know when you see a need for a change in care or in the way something is done.