Home Health Provides Help at Home for the Smallest Patients
While Julie Pickering’s days on the job may be filled with traversing the highways and biways across 19-plus counties in South Mississippi, it’s who she finds at the end of those drives that bring her the greatest joys.
As a pediatric physical therapist with Forrest Health Home Health Care, Pickering is working with the youngest of patients, an age group very few Home Health agencies provide treatment for. The work she does is considered more play than work to her young patients and where else is she going to be rewarded with squeals of joy, giggles, and warm smiles and hugs.
In her job, Pickering goes into the homes where parents and their babies and young children need her assistance. “I do a lot of education with families about how they can care for their little ones throughout the week and continue what I’ve started when I’ve been in the home,” she said.
The children Pickering is currently working with range in age from three months old up to nine years old, but she has also treated teens before. She sees patients who have varied diagnoses – from developmental delays for infants who didn’t get off to a great start and need a little help working through their developmental milestones, to children with cerebral palsy, autism, Down Syndrome, and a lot of really rare genetic disorders.
Pickering got into the Home Health field while waiting for another job to open up. “I had a friend who worked at an outpatient clinic where their pediatric therapist was going to retire during the upcoming year,” she explained. “The friend asked if I would be interested in filling the job, which I was.” Pickering put in an application. Then, Home Health Care called. She interviewed, got the job, and started working, but was seeing adults, instead of pediatric patients, which wasn’t her favorite thing to do. One year turned into two years, and Pickering ended up seeing her young patients again.
One of the highlights of her job is seeing an infant who can’t even roll over in the beginning get up on a walker and take his or her first steps. “It’s absolutely incredible,” said Pickering. “There’s also a little boy with severe cerebral palsy, who I started working with when he was about one month old. Just a couple of weeks ago, he was able to pick his head up and hold it up for the first time. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot, but for him, he had been working on that for probably two years. For his mom to see him independently pick his head up and hold it up was pretty incredible.”
She said for some of the families she sees, Home Health Care is life changing. She explained that because these families can receive help at home, the mother doesn’t have to pack up everything and travel to a doctor’s visit or therapy. “One little girl has a trach, is on a ventilator, has a feeding tube, and a really rare skin disorder. For the mom to take her out (her husband works off shore), that’s a lot to do to go to a doctor’s appointment or to therapy twice a week,” Pickering said, noting she actually is able to go into the home twice a week and provide therapy. “For her to get therapy in the comfort of her own home, in a specialized setting, and not have the burden to load up her child and all of that equipment is a life changer.”
Because of Home Health Care, Pickering sees it changing lives in small ways. “These families get to work with their children in the home, and I get to come into the home, where they are comfortable, and that’s a big thing,” she said. “When you take a child out of their natural setting, they can get upset, cry, and be afraid. Being in their home gives them comfort and ease, and they do much better.”
The rewards are many for Pickering, whether the smiles, hugs or when she walks in and a little girl squeals with delight because she knows she’s going to play, even though she is actually working. “She doesn’t realize she’s working, because it’s fun,” Pickering said. “That brings me great joy.” And it also brings joy to the faces of the parents. “The impact is being able to see these families watch their child meet the milestones and exceed what anybody ever expected them to be able to do. For these parents who were told their child might never do anything, succeed and go way beyond their expectations is incredible. The joy on these parents’ faces to see the potential in their child is like nothing you’ve ever seen.”
But once a patient is discharged from her care, doesn’t mean the relationship ends. While they may no longer have the patient/caregiver role, the families add Pickering on social media where she gets to watch these children grow up through photos and videos sent by family members.
“I have a family who moved out of state that I had been seeing several years, and she still sends me videos of how the child is progressing, and what they are doing,” Pickering said. “You become part of the family when you are with these patients for so long and providing care every week. The moms become like friends, and it’s a very unique relationship.”
At one point, Pickering was out for about 12 weeks due to medical leave and had others filling in for her. “There was a little boy with cerebral palsy, who really only had one arm that worked great,” she said. “When I returned, I picked him up and put him in my lap. He took that arm and grabbed me and leaned in as tight as he could. You could feel it. It did my heart good to know that I’m making a difference, and that he had missed me.”
Pickering has patients whose only wish was to see their child be able to sit up in their highchair for a first birthday party and destroy the cake. Through physical therapy, Pickering had a little girl who was able to do that and describes it as “absolutely wonderful.”
The thing she wishes the community knew was that Forrest Health’s Home Health Care does treat pediatric patients, whether they need nursing care, speech or physical therapy. With 26 years of experience under her belt, Pickering is happy to bring her talents into the home of a family who has a child with severe disabilities, because she knows how hard it is for them to get out in the community.
“Forrest Health provides professional healthcare within the comfort of your home,” Pickering said. “That involves the whole family and a whole system of workers who are there to help in any way we can to help you be the best you can be.”
