Caregiving Physical Skills

53 million Americans are unpaid caregivers, mostly for aging parents or disabled family members. Almost none of them received any training. They learn by trial and error — and the errors can mean a dropped patient, a caregiver's blown-out back, or a pressure sore that turns into a hospital stay. This skill covers the physical, hands-on techniques that professional home health aides learn in training: how to move someone safely, how to prevent falls, how to help with bathing, and how to keep both the person you're caring for and yourself from getting hurt. These are body skills — they require practice, not just reading. But knowing the correct technique before you try it is the difference between safe care and a preventable injury.