Introduction

Attendant care services assist in managing a patient’s essential and regular personal care needs, such as grooming, bathing, feeding, dressing, toileting, and other personal or hygiene needs. These services are usually provided for those recovering from surgery or stroke or some protracted and debilitating illness. For clients who have severe physical, mental health or cognitive injuries, personal care needs may also encompass assistance and support to make decisions, assistance with controlling mood, encouragement and prompting to undertake routine personal care tasks, assistance attending treatment and therapy sessions, and emotional support to manage challenging situations.

Attendant care services are not for medical or nursing or treatment needs, but should still be provided by professional and trained carers to ensure patients receive high quality care consistent with industry best-practice.

There are variations on attendant care, such daytime support, overnight support, and therapy support, as well as helping to access community services where instructed by an occupational therapist.

By contrast, domestic care services is more focused on the cleanliness of the home, particularly the bathroom, toilet, shower, and kitchen areas. The primary activities would be wiping surfaces, vacuuming carpets, mopping floors, laundering and ironing clothes, and washing and drying dishes.

In practice there will be some overlap between the two types of services, but in both cases, lifting will usually be a major concern for care staff attending patients who lack mobility or who are bed-bound.

At the bottom of this profile are brief details of a number of the experts that Expert Experts represents. Call our office to discuss your requirements and to obtain a recommendation that suits your needs and budget.

Expertise in Action

Lifting patients who are either bed-bound or of limited mobility will be the main work risk for attendant and domestic care workers. If caregivers lift patients without adequate lifting equipment, it can lead to slipped discs, sore backs, fractures, breakages, dislocations, bruises, and scrapes.

Attendant and domestic care workers also face risks working in unfamiliar locations that may not be properly set up to effectively perform their tasks, thereby providing the temptation for short-cuts to be taken. Patients may become combative or anxious or have aggressive pets or have unsafe electrical wiring or appliances.

An expert in the provision of attendant and domestic care services may offer opinions on Work Safe guidelines, the appropriateness of occupation therapy assessments, whether appropriate equipment was provided, and whether there other unnecessary risks taken by agencies and their workers in order to allocate responsibility when an accident or injury takes place.

Sample Reports

For some fields of expertise we have some sample sections of de-identified reports. Please contact our office if you are interested in a sample.

Cost

The overall cost of expert opinion depends on the services required. Some of the key factors that affect the cost of advice include:

  • The need for a view or inspection of a location
  • The quantity of documentary material to be reviewed
  • Whether there are reports of other experts to be reviewed and commented on in detail
  • Whether there is a need for conferences with the expert either in person or by telephone/Skype
Relevant Articles Injuries to Nurses and Carers by Lifting Patients Incorrectly

Overexertion incidents are some of the leading causes of injury in health care based settings. People responsible for moving and handling people in need of mobility help suffer from more shoulder and back injuries, an increased risk of tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome, and various other chronic concerns.

Working safely in visiting health services

Effective management of OHS risks enables safer delivery of services to clients as well as providing better protection to employees and others. An important part of risk management is consulting with employees, HSRs and clients regarding health and safety issues.

Related Blog Articles

A sample of our experts in Ergonomics – Attendant and domestic care services

Below are short profiles of a few experts with expertise in this field. Please contact our office to discuss your specific requirements and to obtain a recommendation that suits your needs and budget. Expert Experts are experts in finding the right expert for your needs and you pay no more to use Expert Experts than if you searched and found the expert yourself.

Contact us at answers@expertexperts.com.au or give us a call 1300 72 66 55

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