Preparation Tips
- Home visits will be conducted via phone. Please make sure to confirm/keep appointments with mILp staff so there is no disruption in service.
- All new intakes will be conducted via telephone, please make sure you are very clear about your needs and what barriers you have in your home.
- Call staff BEFORE you run out of timesheets/mileage sheets. You will have to leave a message, so be VERY clear about what you need and to what address you’d like them mailed.
- All time-sheets should dropped off in outside box, emailed to timesheets@milp.us, or faxed to your local office.
- IMPORTANT: Have a backup caregiver (they will need to have a current application on file, call your local office), or a back up plan for care in case your personal care attendant is sick.
- All contact with your mILp staff will conducted via phone or through mail. If you receive mail from us, it needs to be addressed PROMPTLY.
- Look NOW at what, if any, Durable Medical Equipment might help you do some things by yourself. If an over the toilet commode is the difference between being able to transfer and toilet or not, we should line that up NOW.
- If your PCA is sick, at all, tell them to stay home and use your backup caregiver.
- You can wear a bandana to cover your mouth if you do not have a face mask.
- Start talking NOW with workers, roommates, family and friends about exposure risk. Talk about how people can limit exposure. The first best option is to NOT get the illness. Limit outside activity now. Use delivery or pickup services for groceries. Limit the personal items brought into homes from other locations and homes. Start using extensive cleaning and hand washing practices at all locations. Make sure anyone who handles the bags or products washes their hands immediately after handling them.
- Have an idea of what other resources may exist to “fill in” some of your worker’s tasks. Look for local resources like a restaurant delivering meals or a pharmacy delivering medications or refills. This could mean the worker is in the home less time. That way there is less exposure between the consumer and the worker. The worker is also out and about in the community less.
- Limit foot traffic in and out of the home, in general, and sanitize the environment. Have attendants disinfect common surfaces, appliances, etc often. Anyone coming in the house must wash their hands before touching anything, taking off shoes if possible. Make an agreement to remind each other when we see the other touching their face or their phone, then wash hands. Ask attendants to limit contact with other people outside of your home.
- Have your personal information and contacts written down and in multiple locations.
- Have any essential devices (prescription drugs, wheelchair battery chargers, cell phone chargers, CPAP) gathered together in case you need to leave your home quickly. Even if you are going to the hospital, plan to take these things with you, in case they don’t have them. Take to the hospital things like: specific ostomy care supplies, and equipment such as transfer boards. Hospitals may have these items, but they can take a long time for them to find them when you need them.
- IF YOU NEED TO LEAVE YOUR HOME to go to the hospital or some other location, let your contact and support people know you are leaving.