When you have a loved one who is requiring more assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs), it can be challenging.
It is difficult to balance all of your commitments while still providing quality care to your senior family member. Plus, often, your senior family member may not want help from you. They may either be too stubborn to admit they need help at home, or they may feel bad about taking you away from your family, work, and other commitments to assist them.
You may be thinking about looking for a senior caregiver. Or, you may be trying to decide if you should consider a nursing home or other options. There are many benefits to selecting home care rather than putting your loved one in a nursing home.
Your Loved One Can Stay in Their Own Home
There truly is no place like home, and when you sign up for in-home care for seniors, your loved one will be able to remain in their home. They will be able to enjoy sleeping in their own bed, relaxing on their couch, and eating meals in their kitchen. While it will still be an adjustment getting used to health care aides, it will be a much easier adjustment compared to living in a nursing home. Your loved one will almost certainly prefer saying home instead of living somewhere else full time.
Assistance with Daily Living Needs
When you hire and in-home care agency, someone will be available to assist your loved one with their daily living needs. Whether they require help with bathing, toileting, or getting dressed, the health care aides will be there to assist however they can. Even if your loved one is still mostly independent with these tasks, it will provide you peace of mind knowing that an aid is there to assist in the case of an emergency.
Companionship for Your Loved One
When you sign up for in-home care for seniors, it also provides the benefit of companionship for your loved one. Often, seniors can feel very isolated. They may not be able to get out on their own or many of their friends or loved ones may have passed away. When their home health care aid is there, it will also provide your loved one with a person to talk with and share memorable stories and life events.
Flexible Scheduling Options
One of the benefits of in-home care for seniors is the flexibility. You can arrange coverage for your loved one during the times you are unable to be there. healthyYou will not need to have a consistent schedule each week. This way, if you know your meetings always run late on Mondays, you can schedule the healthcare aids to stay later on just Monday evenings. If you won’t need an aid on a given day, just don’t schedule care for that day. You are only paid for the times you are scheduled to receive support.
Nutrition and Feeding Support
Maintaining good nutrition and a balanced diet is important for seniors. It is important that they consume enough calories to stay active and alert. It is also very important that they eat the right foods stay healthy. When your loved one receives home care, their caregiver can help ensure they are eating frequently enough. They can also encourage them to eat healthier foods, or foods that you have noted you would like them to try to eat.
Assistance with Taking Medications
If your senior family member has been prescribed any medications for illnesses, or has maintenance medications for issues such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure, it is essential that they take their medicines. Sometimes, seniors may forget to take their pills or decide that they don’t need them. When you sign up for caregiving for seniors, there will be someone at home with your loved one to remind and assist them with taking their medications. This can help them recover more quickly from an illness and prevent problems associated with missing doses of their preventative medications.
Household Upkeep
When you use an in-home care agency, the aids can also provide help at home with daily household chores. They can provide assistance with laundry, making your loved one’s bed, or tidying up the kitchen after a meal. This will take a burden off your shoulders and provide you more time to enjoy the company of your loved one when you are in their home.
Patients Who Receive In-Home Care Recover More Quickly
When your loved one is able to recover from an illness or an injury in the comfort of their home instead of a hospital or nursing home, they can recover more quickly.
Patients are more comfortable and less stressed when they are in their familiar home environment, which can help the body to recover more quickly. So, when you use an agency that provides caregiving for seniors, you (and your loved one) get the best of both worlds. Your loved one will be able to recover in the comfort of their own home, but they will also have a trained professional by their side to offer support and assistance as needed. Even if you need long term care for your loved one, you can still choose in-home care over a nursing home.
Caregiver Coaching
Many in-home care agencies also offer caregiver coaching. Caregiver coaching is designed to help family members strengthen their relationship with their senior loved ones. The coach will facilitate conversations to deepen the bond between family members. They will encourage everyone to share memories from the past to give their loved one something to smile about and discuss.
Most insurances and Medicare won’t cover in-home care (or extended nursing homes stays). So, if you are considering signing your loved one up, you might want to consider purchasing independent caregiver insurance. When you purchase independent caregiver insurance, it can reduce the total amount you are likely to spend on in-home care for your senior family member.
When you have a loved one who is losing their independence, it is natural to worry about their safety. You want to provide the best care for your family member, but it just isn’t feasible or realistic for you to be there all the time to give them everything they need. When you are looking for a senior caregiver, in-home care is the way to go. Whether you need long term care of just need assistance for a few weeks, an in-hone care agency can help arrange care for your loved one. With in-home care, your loved one will receive expert care without having to leave the comfort of their own home. In-home care will also cost you much less money than a nursing home. When you sign your loved one up to receive in-home care, you will have peace of mind knowing they are in the hands of a caring, skilled, and loving professional who will provide them with excellent care.
