Thank you again to all for your continued support in keeping everyone safe and doing your part not to spread the virus!!!
Maximum Care is here for all workers and clients. If there is any need for PPE (supplies such as gloves, mask, hand sanitizers, thermometers, and more) do not hesitate to call into the office. Our goal is to keep everyone as safe as possible.
To show our appreciation we will be doing a monthly raffle for all the DCW. Under announcements, you can get more information on how to become a part of the raffle.
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Do things for Others
Human contribution is the essential ingredient. It is only in the giving of oneself to others that we truly live.
- Ethel Percy Andrus
Helping others is not only good for them and a good thing to do, but it also makes us happier and healthier too. Giving also connects us to others, creating healthier communities and building a happier society for everyone. And it's not all about money - we can also share our time, ideas, and energy. So, if you want to feel good, do good!
Why Helping others Matters
Doing things for others – whether small, unplanned acts or regular volunteering – is a powerful way to boost our happiness and those around us. The people we help may be strangers, family, friends, colleagues, or neighbors. They can be old or young, nearby or far away.
Giving isn't just about money, so you don't need to be rich. Giving to others can be as simple as a single kind word, smile, or thoughtful gesture. It can include providing time, care, skills, thought, or attention. Sometimes these mean as much, if not more, than financial gifts, especially during this time.
I know that my co-workers love a coke in the middle of stressful days. Some days I bring a bottle of coke and put it on their desk. They light up! It might not mean anything to anyone else in the building, but it made a difference in their day.
Thoughtfulness is a treasure in itself.
Scientific studies show that helping others boosts happiness. It increases life satisfaction, provides a sense of meaning, increases the feeling of accomplishment, improves our mood, and reduces stress. It can help to take our minds off our troubles too.
At times, the career we have chosen is beyond stressful, hard work, emotionally draining. However, when we take the time to see it as being helpful, our perspective changes. Making our client's lives easier, help them through their mental health, show them they are not alone. Our job is not hard because we see it as helping them, being there for them when the families are not able or don't have a family.
For anything worth having one must pay the price; and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice – no paper currency, no promises to pay, but the gold of real service.
- John Burroughs
Kindness towards others is the glue that connects an individual's happiness with the broader community and public well-being. Giving to others helps us connect with people and meets one of our basic human needs – connection.
Kindness and caring also seem to be contagious. When we see someone do something kind or thoughtful or on the receiving end of service, it inspires us to be kinder ourselves. In this way, kindness spreads from one person to the next, influencing people who never saw the original act.
Kindness is the key to creating a happier, more trusting local community.
Times are hard, and humanity seems to have lost all its sense of compassion, selflessness. We can be the ones to make a change. Have you ever encountered someone that makes you say, "my faith in humanity has been restored"? Do we make others think of us this way?
Happiness and Helping
Science shows there are strong associations between happiness and helping others. Firstly, happiness helps to support. Happy people are more likely to be interested in or be inclined towards helping others. They are more likely to have recently performed acts of kindness or spent a more significant percentage of their time or money helping others.
There appears to be a relationship between happiness and helping others at every age:
Pre-school children who displayed empathy were more likely to have happy moods
High school students who said they experienced intense positive feeling were more likely to be involved in community service activities such as volunteering
Working adults who were happier at work were more likely to help others
Volunteering has also been related to many benefits for senior citizens, including greater happiness and life satisfaction
Volunteering is also related to increased happiness irrespective of the socio-economic situation of the volunteer. What's more, people who give a proportion of their monthly income to charitable causes or spent it on gifts for others were found to be happier than people who did not spend on others, and this regardless of income level.
The Benefits of Helping Others
1. Helping Increases Happiness
While it has long been assumed that giving also leads to greater happiness, this has only recently started to be scientifically proven. For example, when participants in a study did five new acts of kindness on one day per week over six-week periods (even if each act was small), they experienced an increase in well-being compared to control groups.
In another study, participants who were given $5 or $20 to spend on others or donate to charity experienced greater happiness than people given the same amount to spend on themselves. Interestingly the amount of money did not affect the level of satisfaction generated.
There is now evidence that this leads to a virtuous circle – happiness makes us give more, and giving makes us happier, which leads to a greater tendency to offer and so on. This effect is consistent across different cultures.
If people are generous, they are more likely to be liked and build social connections and more substantial and more supportive social networks, which leads to an increased feeling of happiness and well-being. Indeed, participating in shared tasks like community service and other social activities predicts how satisfied people are even after other factors are taken into account.
2. Giving Feels Good
Giving makes us feel good. In a study of over 1,700 women volunteers, scientists described a 'helpers high' experience. Sharing was the euphoric feeling, followed by a more extended period of calm, experienced by many of the volunteers after helping. These sensations result from the release of endorphins. They are followed by a longer-lasting period of improved emotional well-being and sense of self-worth, feelings that reduce stress and improve the health of the helper.
It used to be thought that human beings only did things when they got something in return. How then could we explain people who did kind acts or donated money anonymously? Studies of the brain now show that when we give money to good causes, the same parts of the brain light up as if we were receiving money ourselves (or responding to other pleasurable stimuli such as food, money, or sex)!
Giving to others activates the reward centers of our brains, which make us feel good and so encourages us to do more of the same. Giving money to a good cause feels as good as receiving it, especially if the donations are voluntary.
3. Giving Does You Good
Giving help has a stronger association with mental health than receiving it. Studies have shown that volunteers have fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety, and they feel more hopeful. It is also related to feeling good about oneself. It can distract people from dwelling on their problems and be grateful for what they have. Volunteering is also associated with psychological well-being.
Giving may increase how long we live. Studies of older people show that those who support others live longer than those who don't, including support to friends, relatives, neighbors, and emotional support to their spouse. In contrast, receiving help did not influence living longer.
Volunteering also appeared to predict cognitive functioning maintenance in a study of 2,500 people in their 70's who were followed in a study lasting eight years. Other studies have shown that volunteering has been associated with improved self-esteem, reduction in anti-social or problem behaviors and school truancy, enhanced attitudes to school, and increased educational achievement amongst teenagers.
While unpicking the benefits of volunteering from other factors can be challenging, such as volunteers being healthier in the first place and so more able to volunteer. It may be that volunteering is one planned activity that people can engage in to increase well-being and maintain optimal cognitive functioning in old age.
Helping: Red Flag
Helping is associated with increased happiness and health, but feeling burdened can be detrimental, such as long-term careers. There is evidence that while giving pleasure is associated with higher self-esteem, life satisfaction, and positive feelings, giving under pressure is not. There are times when we need to give because it is the compassionate response and the right thing to do, such as crisis or need.
However, as a general rule, we should try to match our giving activities to things that we find inherently enjoyable, in line with our own goals, and feel are worthwhile for ourselves and the recipient.
If we are happy givers, the recipients will likely benefit more, and we are more likely to continue to give.
Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
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New
New things will be posted and a New Journey will begin at Maximum Care. Stay Tune!!!!
Where will this new journey take you!
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We have implemented new steps!
When the app fails to work correctly, the new EVV Policy and Procedure will guide you step by step on what steps to take. We have sent the new EVV Policy and Procedure Revised and a Self-Monitoring Acknowledgement form policy via DocuSign. It will be your responsibility to read, sign and adhere to the new policy as it may affect/delay your payment. If you are having any problems understanding the current policy, call Yenica “Jen” to review.
We have also emailed a copy to everyone separate from the DocuSign.
Make sure that you are putting the duties being done at the end of every shift. Including when calling from the client’s home. If you need instructions on how and a duties list, please contact the agency. It can be mailed, emailed, or text to you.
If you fail to put in the duties performed, it can affect your payments.
If you are having any problems with the system, call the agency for assistance.
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Make sure to check out our:
page!!!! All you have to do is go to the homepage at maximumcare.online and click on our f (Facebook)!! you are welcome to like our page. You can also let me know if you like the Information I am putting out through the website. Feedback is always welcomed. You can even send me a personal message.
Get involved, have a voice!
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Incentives
Activities:
Help us come up with creative things to do with our elderly! What do you do for your clients?
We would like the caregivers to take 20 min of their shift if possible, to do creative things with their clients. We are the first and maybe the last person our clients see in the day or even week. Loneliness is a big part of their lives. Let’s take some time to show them that we are not just personal care or home care but show them that they are not alone and we really do care.
Creative Based Incentive Contest:
1. Come up with a creative and fun activity to do with your client
2. Call, text or email Yenica with the activity (610-264-2353, 484-781-4603, or yenicamaximumcare@gmail.com)
3. The office staff will vote
4. Winner will receive a gift card
Refer a caregiver to Maximum Care Inc.:
You will receive $50 after 100 hrs. worked. (At least within 2 months).
Travel Recommendations:
The Pa Dept of Health has recommended that if anyone travels you quarantine. Due to the daily changes from CDC and Pa Dept. Of Health, call into Maximum Care for instructions in regards to your travel plans and the impact that it may have.
Maximum Care Inc is following the recommendations at this time. If any changes come up, we will be posting our training/communications on the website Maximumcare.online. It is your responsibility to make staffing aware if there are any clients that will need to be covered while you are out either in quarantine or vacation.
Follow the following steps to request any time of:
Give us as much notice as possible.
Either request “The time off request form” or your letter for time off should include the following: Name of Cl, day of service, and time. State where you will be going and for how long.
Email or mail the requested time off. Take note that we must put everything in the new system, even if time passes, we need everything in writing.
It is due to quarantine call the office immediately and informs the office of why you will be in quarantine and how long will you be in quarantine.
Reminder:
At this time due to the use of the EVV system, we understand that documenting is difficult. Call the agency with any concerns you may have that you would like it to be documented. Especially if a client is refusing personal care or assistance of any kind. Call the agency if you need guidance with a client or have any questions about the care that you are providing or feel that needs to be provided.
Maximum Care has also developed a form that is recommended to DCW to fill out when taking any kind of payment for items from clients. Call and request the form to be mailed to you or come into the office to get the form.
GPS
Maximum Care Inc is under state regulations to follow strict guidelines to pay DCW and to bill for all visits.
Maximum Care’s Inc's responsibilities are to make sure that everyone is using EVV properly, pay all DCW properly, and bill for the properly authorized hours allotted to the participant. We also supervise all clock in & clock out within the range and schedule time.
The system alerts Maximum Care if you clock in or out when you are not within GPS range. For example, you cannot clock in from the LV Mall when you are supposed to be in the client’s home. It will alert us and show us an address and map of your location when you clock in or out. If you are out of range this may cause a delay in payment. If for any reason you need to clock in or out of range due to a participant, you must call the agency and make us aware. For example: If participants have therapy, Dr appointments, dropping them off or picking them up from a program, etc. Call Maximum Care for special instructions to ensure contractual permission.
It is your responsibility to inform the office, it is not Maximum Care Inc responsibility to call and confirm the “Why’s”. Maximum Care can reject the visit until further investigation is done which will delay your payment.
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STAFFING REMINDER:
Make sure you communicate with the Staffing Department of any changes that need to be made to your schedule, availability, address, email, phone number, etc. It is important to keep all parties informed and the lines of communication remain open.
PAYROLL REMINDER:
EVV system must be used to make sure that there is no interruptions, delays, or problem with direct deposit. In the future, your pay will not be able to be processed if you are not using the system.
If your schedule changes for any reason it is your responsibility to call it in. This way we can fix any discrepancy to your schedule without any delays to your pay.
SAFETY TRAINING
Read the Fire Safety Training Monthly Newsletter to develop safety at the forefront of client/employee daily activities.
Keep an eye open for the Direct Care Worker (DCW) Safety Implementation Form. The form is mailed out to the DCW to give us an honest assessment of the clients they serve. Remember you are our eyes and ears; with your assistance, we can continue to keep everyone safe.
COMPLIANCE REMINDER:
Make sure that your employment file is within compliance to continue employment with Maximum Care. Compliance is no longer waived with all the contracts. Example of things that must be up to date is all car information, CNA license, annual TB, annual physical. If any concerns or questions regarding your file please contact Yenica “Jen” Buskirk at 610-264-2353 or yenicamaximumcare@gmail.com.
Maximum Care Inc has written a self-monitoring acknowledgment form that all Direct Care Worker is expected to read and sign off on it. The form must be returned to Yenica “Jen”.
All direct care worker is mandated to wear mask and shields while servicing clients.
If you need PPE please do not hesitate to contact the office.
Reminder to:
Continue to use social distance (6ft), from clients when possible, public.
Increase sanitation methods.
Monitor yourself and the client. Keep an eye on family members that come in contact with the client and yourself. It does affect the client, as it can affect you.
Clients must wear the mask. If they are in need of a mask call the office and we will send it to them or you may pick up a mask for clients.