Home Care in Pottsville, PA

Why Pottsville families call us

Pottsville families tend to call at a turning point. A parent who has lived in the same row home for fifty years falls on the stairs, or comes home from Lehigh Valley Hospital–Schuylkill weaker than before, or starts forgetting meals. The grown children often moved for work to the Lehigh Valley, Reading, Harrisburg or out of state, and the cousins and neighbors who used to check in are getting older too. What the family needs is someone reliable at the house on a set schedule, and a straight answer about what that looks like.

Homes and settings: row homes, hills and boroughs

Pottsville was built on anthracite and is laid out on hillsides above the Schuylkill River. Much of the housing is brick and frame row homes and twins along steep streets, from the blocks around Garfield Square and Mahantongo Street to Yorkville on the west side and Fishbach. These homes usually mean a narrow staircase, bedrooms and the only full bath on the second floor, a basement laundry and front steps straight onto a sloped sidewalk. Winter ice on those hills keeps a lot of older residents inside for days.

The boroughs around the city are much the same: Mount Carbon and Palo Alto along the river, Port Carbon and Saint Clair to the north, Minersville to the west, and Schuylkill Haven and Cressona to the south, with more suburban homes in Norwegian and North Manheim townships. In each, the plan usually starts with the stairs and the bathroom. A caregiver can help with bathing and dressing, walk alongside on the stairs, prepare meals, keep the laundry moving from the basement, and handle groceries and the pharmacy so your parent is not out on icy sidewalks. Our home safety checklist covers what to look at before we visit.

Lehigh Valley Hospital–Schuylkill and coming home

Lehigh Valley Hospital–Schuylkill operates two campuses in the city, on East Norwegian Street and South Jackson Street, both formerly part of Schuylkill Health before joining Lehigh Valley Health Network in 2016. Geisinger St. Luke's Hospital in Orwigsburg and St. Luke's Miners Campus in Coaldale also serve the county, and people who need specialized care are often transferred to Allentown or Bethlehem and then come home to Pottsville to recover.

Call us with the discharge date and the address. A caregiver can meet your parent at home, help them up the steps and settled, make a meal, set up reminders that follow the discharge instructions and stay overnight if needed. Nursing and therapy visits come from the home health agency the hospital arranges; we are non-medical and work alongside that team. See coming home from Lehigh Valley Hospital–Schuylkill.

How care starts in Pottsville

1. Call (717) 695-2704 or request a consultation online. Tell us the address, what a normal day looks like now and what changed recently.
2. In-home consultation. A care coordinator visits the home in Pottsville or the nearby boroughs, meets your parent and walks the house with you. Schuylkill County is one of our outer counties, so the visit can take a little longer to schedule than the one to two business days typical around Harrisburg.
3. Written care plan listing each task, the schedule, and your parent's preferences and routines.
4. Caregiver match on care needs, personality, language, schedule and location, with an introduction before the first shift when schedules allow.
5. Ongoing check-ins from our office, and on-call support for active clients outside office hours.

An honest word about scheduling

Pottsville and the boroughs along PA 61 and US 209 are easier to staff than the far ends of the county, but every schedule here depends on caregiver availability. Longer visits and recurring shifts, such as four-hour weekday mornings or set overnights, are easier to cover consistently than a one-hour daily check-in. Snow and steep streets can slow a drive in winter, and we plan around that with you. If a schedule is hard to staff, we will tell you during the consultation.

Paying for care in Pottsville

• Schuylkill County Office of Senior Services, the county's Area Agency on Aging, on East Laurel Boulevard in Pottsville, (570) 622-3103. It handles OPTIONS for residents 60 and older, care management, protective services, insurance counseling and caregiver support. We accept OPTIONS through the county AAA. See how the OPTIONS program works.
• Long-term care insurance. We provide the care plan, daily notes and itemized invoices most carriers ask for. See how long-term care insurance claims work.
• VA benefits. Aid and Attendance and Housebound benefits can help eligible veterans and surviving spouses pay for care at home. See VA benefits for home care in Pennsylvania.
• Medicaid waiver programs. Community HealthChoices (UPMC Community HealthChoices, PA Health & Wellness, AmeriHealth Caritas), the OBRA waiver and Act 150. We are an enrolled provider, and your parent can choose any willing and qualified provider. See home care through Medicaid waiver programs.
• Medicare does not pay for ongoing non-medical home care. It covers intermittent skilled home health visits when a doctor orders them, which is a different service from ours.

Read how to pay for home care in Pennsylvania for more.

Neighborhoods and nearby towns we cover

• Yorkville
• Fishbach
• Mount Carbon
• Palo Alto
• Port Carbon
• Saint Clair
• Minersville
• Schuylkill Haven
• Cressona
• Orwigsburg
• Norwegian Township
• North Manheim Township
• Frackville