As people grow older they become less able to do safely in their home many of the things they’ve done most of their lives. While there are senior living options, such as an assisted living or nursing homes for people to move into, this is not what many seniors want these days.
In a 2010 AARP survey, three-quarters of participants over the age of 45 said they “strongly agree” with the following statement: “What I’d really like to do is stay in my current residence for as long as possible.” Access the full report here.
COVID-19 has led more older adults to favor home care. Research by the National Association for Home Care & Hospice found that 65 percent of family caregivers have changed their opinions about the best way to care for older adults. A whopping 78 percent report they are concerned their older loved one is at greater risk for COVID-19 in a long-term facility.
With so many more people looking to home care for support through the Golden Years for themselves or their aging loved ones, many are wondering what home care provides.
Home Care vs. Home Health Care
Before delving into what home care provides, let’s understand the difference between home care and home health care. Many people believe they are the same, but they are very different.
Home care services do not provide medical-based interventions or non-medical services while home health care does. Caregivers provide home care services. Licensed, registered, and experienced nurses, professional therapists, and doctors provide home health care services.
Home health care services are for individuals who are recovering from:
- Acute Medical Condition
- Injury
- Surgery
- Other Medical-Related Issue
Home health care is primarily for people who need medical monitoring but their health is not threatened enough to require hospital care and pretty much only for when someone needs short-term recuperation.
Home care is for people who are simply suffering from non-medical age-related issues. This may include:
- Taking a bath or shower independently without the risk of falling.
- Cook healthy meals without getting hurt.
- Clean their house enough to keep it safe and healthy.
- Remember to take medication every day.
- Drive to appointments or run errands.
Now you know some of the differences between home care and home health care. Let’s now proceed with more information on just home care.
Everything You Need to Know About Home Care
Home care offers seniors compassion and helps with daily living skills. The level of care provided depends on each senior’s needs. Some may need help with meal prep while others may need help with dressing, grooming and toileting.
Home care aides are hired to help seniors with their daily needs so they can continue living in their homes safely. Services provided by home care workers are:
- Companionship
- Transportation
- Assistance with activities of daily living.
- Preparing meals or delivering meals.
- Light cleaning and organizing the home.
- Budgeting finances.
- Reminders to take medications.
Home care assists seniors in whatever way they need, except when it comes to medical maintenance, monitoring, or management. As long as it is non-medical related, a caregiver can usually assist.
With medication reminders, the caregivers simply remind the senior to take his/her medications. The caregiver can not administer the medication. Since many older adults have trouble with memory loss, the reminders are quite helpful in keeping their medical conditions stable.
Who Benefits from Home Care
Seniors are not the only ones who benefit from home care, their loved ones do as well.
When adult children see their aging parents unable to live in their home safely, they begin to worry. With the busyness that many Americans have from day-to-day, it can be difficult to care for older parents adequately. Home care workers can step in and help out wherever needed.
Home care agencies offer respite care services for adult children who would like to care for their parents but need breaks at times, such as when going out of town on vacation. Many people do not consider this because they believe home care services are all or nothing. Fortunately, this is untrue. Adult children can call upon home care services whenever they need them for however long they need it.
How to Pay for Home Care
Medicare only pays for home health care (another difference between home care and home health care). Medicaid pays for home care in most states, but with strict low-income requirements to receive Medicaid benefits, many people are not able to take advantage of the program.
Most people pay for home care with their long-term care insurance policy, if they purchased it when they were younger. Long-term care insurance provides coverage for many senior-related services and has proven to be quite helpful to those needing home care services.
Private pay is the other option. Home care is not as expensive as many people imagine. Home care agencies understand seniors have a limited income, so their costs for home care services align with the average senior income for the area.
The cost of home care services depends on the level of need. Seniors who need many home care services will pay much more than those who only need two or three services. The only way to know how much senior home care will cost is to contact a home care agency for an assessment.
Contact Us for a Home Care Assessment
A home care aide can perform an assessment on your senior loved one. This person will ask a series of questions about the current status of the senior to determine which home care services would be best for the person.
The home care aide will then provide a report with findings on the best services and home care plan for the seniors along with costs.
It is possible to choose individuals services based on the needs of the senior who is receiving care from a loved one. In the case of a loved one who is providing caregiving, a home care aide will ask what the loved one needs help with and base the assessment on those needs to fill in the gaps. This can be incredibly relieving to a loved one who may be exhausted (physically, emotionally or mentally) from taking care of their older parents.
Contact us today to schedule an appointment with one of our experienced caregivers to perform the needs assessment. We follow all COVID-19 safety precautions to keep our home care aides, seniors, and their loved ones safe and healthy through the pandemic.