Homecare intervention

On December 21, 1992, Maison Plein Cœur offered fort the first time services related to homecare intervention. At that time, the services consisted mainly of physical and psychological care to accompany people at the end of their lifetime. With the arrival of multitherapies and the significant increase in life expectancy, the people needs changed towards needs connected to the perspective of living with the HIV. The end of lifetime palliative care remains a field of expertise, although fortunately this expertise is not much requested.

A major change appeared with regard to the users of this service: the considerable increase in the number of children and the number of women, heads of family. Indeed, men living with the HIV-AIDS now represent only the third of the users receiving our homecare interventions. This change brings a considerable transformation of the role which homecare workers assume.

More and more, homecare workers have to play a connecting role between people who express needs for assistance and the available resources in the local life environments. They act more like a community alternative resource, for instance, as a social worker or a special educator teacher.

The mission of the homecare workers consists primarily of three priorities :

1. assisting new HIV-Seropositive mothers before and after the childbirth;
2. assisting people returning home after a hospitalization;
3. helping people leaving a housing facility to return in the community.

Homecare community workers operate in close collaboration with the professionals of health and social services. They cooperate mainly with hospital private HIV clinics, HIV teams of the CLSC, and with mobile teams helping homeless and disorganized people.

Here is an outline of the homcare worker expertise :

• recognizing the forerunner signs of the disease;
• identifying the risk factors in people environment;
• reducing the misdeeds caused by risky behaviors (drug-addiction);
• taking into account mental health and adaptation disorders;
• supporting rehabilitation processes connected to physical handicaps;
• teaching people to observe medication and medical treatments;
• assisting and enabling with domestic and residential autonomy;
• enabling with food autonomy;
• connecting and accompanying towards community and social services;
• stimulating people to break isolation and support spare times management;
• getting in touch with a professional social worker;
• defending the civil rights;
• working to operate an intercultural translation between members of the cultural communities and the welcoming society.

Note : considering the current resource available at Maison Plein Cœur, it is not possible to translate most of the internal documents in English for the moment. However, if you wish to get more information about a service we offer, or for any comment, please contact us.