Meal Preparation means choosing foods that will be the most helpful in controlling your diet. It also means knowing how much of and when to eat those foods. There are several ways you can prepare your meals to make sure you’re getting the right foods, in the right amounts, every day.

Going out on behalf of the client and purchasing the necessary items for diet and care living.

Providing a safe and friendly atmosphere for the elderly, while ensuring their safety.

Assist clients with ambulation.

Assist a client with positioning when the client is able to identify to the personal care staff, either verbally, non-verbally or through others, when the position needs to be changed, only when skilled skin care, as previously described, is not required in conjunction with the positioning. Positioning may include simple alignment in a bed, wheelchair, or other furniture.

Assist a client to/from the bathroom; provide assistance with bed pans, urinals, and commodes; provide pericare; or change clothing and pads of any kind used for the care of incontinence.

1. A home services worker may empty or change external urine collection devices, such as catheter bags or suprapubic catheter
2. A home services worker may empty ostomy bags and provide assistance with other client­ directed ostomy care only when there is no need for skilled skin care or for observation or reporting to a nurse.

Assist with transfers only when the client has sufficient balance and strength to reliably stand and pivot and assist with the transfer to some extent. Adaptive and safety equipment may be used in transfers, provided that the client is fully trained in the use of the equipment and can direct the transfer step by step. Adaptive equipment may include, but is not

1. limited to,
2. wheelchairs, tub seats, and grab Gait belts may be used as a safety device for the home services worker as long as the worker has been properly trained in their use. A home services worker shall not assist with transfers when the client is unable to assist with the transfer. Home services workers may assist clients in the use of a mechanical or electrical transfer device only when the following conditions are met:
3. The home services worker must have been trained in the use of the mechanical or electrical transfer device by the licensed agency;
4. The client or client representative must be able to direct the transfer step by step; and
5. The agency must have conducted a competency evaluation of the worker using the type of device that is available in the home.

Assist a client with medication reminding only when medications have been pre-selected by the client, a family member, a nurse, or a pharmacist and are stored in containers other than the prescription bottles, such as medication minders. Medication minder containers shall be clearly marked as to day and time of dosage.

Medication reminding includes: inquiries as to whether medications were taken; verbal prompting to take medications; handing the appropriately marked medication minder container to the client; and opening the appropriately marked medication minder container for the client if the client is physically unable to open the container. These limitations apply to all prescription and all over-the-counter medications. The home services worker shall immediately report to the supervisor any irregularities noted in the pre-selected medications, such as medications taken too often or not often enough, or not at the correct time as identified in the written instructions.

Providing companionship and healthy social interaction by engaging in reading, games, watching movies, walks, time in nature, meal-time, mindfulness practices, aromatherapy, and much more!