Local home care agency trains locals for fast-growing employment sector

While employment statistics continue to worsen and layoffs and hiring freezes have become the norm, one employment sector that has proven itself recession-proof is home health care. Taking care of family members at home who can’t take care of themselves is a fast growing business. . .despite the economy. To meet the growing demand of […]

May 12, 2009; 11:27 AM • by brenda p

While employment statistics continue to worsen and layoffs and hiring freezes have become the norm, one employment sector that has proven itself recession-proof is home health care. Taking care of family members at home who can’t take care of themselves is a fast growing business. . .despite the economy. To meet the growing demand of home care aides, Personal Care Preferred Group (PCPG), a locally-owned network of Southside VA home healthcare companies, is actively recruiting qualified individuals looking to pursue a career in home care for their Personal Care Aide (PCA) training classes held regularly throughout the area.

“A growing population of seniors is expected to increase employment in home care nationally by 51 percent between 2006 and 2016,” said John Thurman, PCPG CEO. “Patients, especially elderly ones, increasingly choose care in their homes, rather than in a nursing home-type of facility, and we need to meet this growing demand by training qualified individuals to care for them.”

To keep up with demand, PCPG offers classes throughout the year throughout its service area, including the Tri-Cities, Stony Creek, Franklin, Emporia and other areas within Southside VA. All perspective students must pass a background check in order to be considered.

PCPG’s most recent graduating class included 14 Southside VA students who spent 40 hours over two-and-a-half weeks learning how to provide professional personal care to clients in their own homes. The class was held at the offices of the Southside Area Chapter of the American Red Cross on Crater Road in Petersburg, to whom PCPG gave a monetary donation to lease the space.

Graduating students planning a career as a home care aide can expect to help people who are elderly, disabled, ill, and/or mentally disabled to live in their own homes or in residential care facilities instead of in health facilities or institutions. Some aides may also help discharged hospital patients who have relatively short-term needs. The duties of an aide vary by client, but most can expect to help clients get out of bed, bathe, dress and groom. Some accompany clients to doctors’ appointments or on other errands, while others clean clients’ houses, do laundry and cook.

At PCPG, each aide is supervised by a registered nurse who provides detailed instructions explaining when to visit clients and what services to perform for them. Aides may visit several clients in one day or work solely with one client who is in need of more care and attention.

PCPG consists of three individual companies, Personal Touch Home Care, Moore Home Care and Southern Touch Health Care. The group has offices in Stony Creek, Colonial Heights, Waverly, Emporia, Petersburg, Lawrenceville, and a new location in Franklin.

For more information on the PCA class schedule or about Personal Care Preferred Group, please call (800) 598-9854, or visit pcpgonline.com.

May 12, 2009 11:27 AM 0