Derek Neary
Northern News Services

FORT SIMPSON (Aug 27/99) - Checking blood pressure, blood sugar levels, heart rate and taking clients to medical appointments or even shopping.

Those are among the primary duties that home-support worker Millie Lafferty carries out on a regular basis. Lafferty, who has taken the long-term care aid program and has been a home-support worker in Fort Simpson since the program began three and a half years ago, said she averages a caseload of 18-25 clients.

"I love it. I love working with the elders," she said, adding that her hours are 9 to 5, so she avoids shift work.

"They (the clients) are mainly happy they can be in their own home and somebody can come by and check on them."

Home care is designed to allow clients to live at home for as long as possible, according to Leah Keats, regional co-ordinator of the program for Deh Cho Health and Social Services.

The majority of clients tend to be elderly, but the program is open to people of all ages, she pointed out. As well, there is a housekeeping component to it, but that is not the focus of the program, she noted.

With home care, there's no cost to clients or their families and a declining cost to the territorial government because there will be less demand on long-term care facilities. It's a win-win situation, Keats said.

"The client is where he or she wants to be and, in most cases, where the family wants the person to be," she said. "A lot of times for long-term care, you have to leave your community completely and then you're cut off from your family. The social cost is most devastating."

Lafferty, like all home support workers in the region, is employed through the local Dene band, which runs the program on a contractual basis. There is another part-time home support worker position in Fort Simpson that is currently vacant, but will hopefully be filled soon, said Keats.

The home care program is also available in Fort Providence, where there are two full-time and one part-time positions, and in Fort Liard, where two full-time positions exist. The program in both of those communities, however, is being revised to meet the present model, one where the role is well defined and the community health representative plays a complimentary role, said Keats.

Although home care doesn't yet exist in some of the smaller communities, there are strides being made to implement it where the demand warrants, according to Keats.

"That's our goal in the short term, in the next year or so, to have it standardized so that in every community, whether you're living in Wrigley or Trout Lake, you're going to be getting the same type of service," she said, adding that it's envisioned that a three-year home support program will eventually be offered through Aurora College to train local support workers.

Among the home care services available in Fort Simpson are:

Respite care -- temporary relief to the primary caregiver of a new-born baby or a dependent family member

Chronic care -- monitoring and follow-up (after a hospital stay) of diabetes, high blood pressure, respiratory illness, etc.

Personal care -- help with bathing, skin care, nail and foot care

Palliative care -- At present nurses generally provide this service for bed-ridden clients. It involves personal hygiene and feeding.

Ralph Isaiah, who is paralysed from the neck down, has been making use of the home care program for more than two years. He said it helps his mother by relieving her from having to get him out of bed and into his wheel chair, washing him up and brushing his teeth.

"My mom appreciates it, but it's only two times a week," he said, adding that more frequent visits would be of greater benefit.

As it happens, Isaiah is moving to Edmonton next week, where he will receive daily home care and regular therapy sessions.

"There's nothing here for that," he said.

The home-care program, Keats explained, is intended to compliment but not replace the care the family or any primary caregiver provides, she explained.

"Anywhere, the family would be expected to provide the bulk of (the care) and services would fill in for the rest," she said.