In the last few years, home care for the disabled has been growing in demand. The constant aging of the population and the increase in chronic diseases have in fact also led to an increase in people with disabilities. It is defined as disabled person who has conditions of non self-sufficiency, or partial and total inability to interact with their social environment and familiar. Disability can be acquired at birth due to genetic or congenital diseases, or in the course of life for conditions such as accidents or illnesses that have partially or completely compromised the person's cognitive, sensorial, performance, physical and psychological abilities.

Even the progressive aging can be a cause of disability. In this case, the very elderly person may be unable to wash, get out of bed, eat or go to the bathroom. In all the conditions mentioned above, personal assistance becomes essential. Furthermore, over the years, greater attention to the conditions of disabled people and their families has radically changed the concept and objectives of the assistance service for people with disabilities. While in the past, home care consisted simply of administering therapies and medicines at home, today, home care coincides with taking care of the whole person, assisting it in their home and providing health, performance and psychological support to the same and to his family. The goal of home care for the disabled is no longer just to follow them in taking drugs that improve their clinical conditions, but also to "accompany them" towards a better and more satisfying quality of life. In this context, home care for the disabled is configured as a series of multiple and continuous care services aimed at maintaining the patient's usual living environment and family relationships.

When the home care service also includes multiple services, it is also referred to as integrated assistance. The term refers to not only medical, therapeutic and nursing services, but also primary assistance to the needs of the person, how to help her move, to go to the bathroom, to eat and to wash. The various services that make up the home care service vary depending on the needs of the patient, the duration of the intervention and the intensity of the clinical conditions to be treated. In this sense, different levels of home care are distinguished: performance, integrated first and second level, high intensity care (third level) and home care for palliative care. The performance assistance includes medical, nursing and rehabilitative care that does not require the total care of the person. The integrated first and second level assistance, on the other hand, includes diagnostic, medical, nursing and rehabilitative services, which, due to the complexity of the pathology, require interventions of at least five or six days a week and the total care of the person.

Third level assistance, or high intensity, includes the same services as second level assistance, but with a total responsibility for the person seven days a week. Finally, the home care for palliative care covers all diagnostic, medical, nursing, therapeutic and psychological services aimed at patients who, due to incurable diseases, have reached the end of life. This last type of assistance is provided seven days a week and requires prompt medical availability 24 hours a day. Home care for the disabled can be activated at the request of the family doctor, pediatrician or hospital where the patient is He was initially hospitalized.