Support that adapts as life does
Every plan starts with a conversation and a free in-home assessment, then changes as needs change. Most families begin with fewer hours than they expect: a few mornings a week is a perfectly normal place to start.
Personal Care
Help with the parts of the day that have become harder, offered the way anyone would want it offered, with privacy and dignity intact.
Personal care is the most intimate thing we do, and the part families worry about most. It works when the same familiar caregiver comes each time, knows how someone likes things done, and moves at their pace rather than a schedule's. Almost everyone finds the first week awkward and the third week unremarkable.
- Bathing, showering, grooming and dressing
- Toileting and continence support
- Help getting up in the morning and settled at night
- Skin care, oral care and shaving
- Standing by for safety rather than taking over, wherever that is enough
Companionship
Loneliness does real damage, quietly. A familiar visitor who knows the stories and notices what has changed is not a small thing.
Families often treat companionship as the optional extra, then find it was the part that changed things: appetite returns, sleep improves, someone starts going out again. It is also the service that catches problems early, because a person who visits every week notices what a monthly phone call cannot.
- Conversation, cards, music, letters and photographs
- Company on walks, errands and appointments
- Help staying in touch with family and friends
- Encouragement to keep up hobbies and routines
- Telling the family what has changed, while it is still small
Respite Care
For the family member doing most of it. Respite is not giving up. It is the thing that makes carrying on possible.
Respite is professional cover so a family caregiver can stop for a while: a few hours every week, two weeks for a vacation, or cover during your own illness or surgery. Families routinely wait until they are in crisis, which is the worst possible moment to introduce a new person into a household. Starting while things are calm gives everyone time to get comfortable.
- A regular few hours a week, at the same time
- Planned cover for holidays, appointments or your own treatment
- Short-notice help when something goes wrong
- The same caregiver each time, so handover is quick
- Emergency backup planning before you need it
Medication Reminders
Prompting, timing and an extra pair of eyes on the routine, so doses are not missed, doubled or quietly skipped.
Most medication problems at home are not dramatic. They are a dose taken twice because the first was forgotten, or a repeat prescription that ran out three days ago. A caregiver who is there at the same time each day closes most of that gap simply by being present and paying attention.
- Reminders at the right times each day
- Help keeping the organizer filled and in order
- Watching for refills running low and flagging them
- Telling the family about side effects or changes they should know
- Support getting to pharmacy and GP appointments
Caregivers remind and assist. They do not prescribe, administer injections, or perform nursing procedures. If clinical care is needed, that is home health care, and we will say so.
Meal Preparation & Nutrition
Proper meals, cooked in their own kitchen, to their own taste, and eaten in company rather than alone.
Appetite is one of the first things to go when someone is living alone, and one of the clearest signals that something has changed. Cooking together, where that is possible, does considerably more than cooking for someone: it keeps a skill alive and turns a chore into part of the visit.
- Shopping, cooking and safe food storage
- Support for prescribed or preferred diets
- Cooking together where that is welcome
- Encouragement to eat and drink enough, especially in hot weather
- Keeping an eye on what is actually being eaten between visits
Mobility Support
Confidence to keep moving, around the house, into the garden, and back out into the world.
After a fall or a near-fall most people move less, and moving less makes the next fall likelier. That loop is the thing worth interrupting early. Steady, unhurried support at the riskiest moments of the day keeps people walking, and walking is what keeps them independent.
- Steady support walking, on stairs and outdoors
- Safe transfers to and from chair, bed and car
- Encouragement to keep moving after a fall or a scare
- Spotting trip hazards and keeping routes clear
- Company on walks, which is what makes them happen
What we do, and what we do not
An agency that says yes to everything either has not thought about it or is not being honest with you. Here is the line, plainly.
We can
- Help with all daily living activities
- Remind and assist with medication
- Support mobility, transfers and outings
- Cook, shop, and keep the home running
- Keep the family informed between visits
We cannot
- Prescribe, or change a prescription
- Give injections or perform nursing procedures
- Provide skilled therapy or wound care
- Make medical or financial decisions for someone
- Replace 24-hour clinical supervision
If what you need sits on this side of the line, we will tell you, and point you to who can help.
How home care is paid for
The three routes families in Allegheny County actually use, in plain terms. If a different one applies to you, we will say so.
Does Cyanjel Home Care accept Community HealthChoices (CHC), the Pennsylvania Medicaid waiver?
Can I pay privately, without a program?
What is the difference between home care and home health care?
Worth reading first
We would rather you chose well than chose us.
Care starts with a conversation.
Tell us what your family needs and we will help you understand the options, including the ones that are not us.
Mon–Fri, 10:00am–5:00pm · Free in-home assessment, no obligation.
