As our loved ones grow older, there comes a time when care assistance may become a necessity. With countless options in front of you, choosing the appropriate care style for the patient can be overwhelming. Rather than sending them off to an unfamiliar facility where they lose their preferred lifestyle, you can get them signed up for senior home care. In-home care provides patients with a wide array of benefits that will allow them to live the best years of their Golden Years in peace and happiness while still getting top-quality care.
8 Benefits of Senior Home Care
They Get to Keep Their Home
One of the top benefits of in-home care is that your loved one can keep their beloved home. For many elderly, the thought of leaving their home is physically, mentally, and emotionally destructive. By getting to keep the house where they raised their children or lived a long, happy life can actually improve or maintain their cognitive skills and memory function. Plus, they get to sleep in their own bed, use their own appliances, and have all the items they have loved and collected throughout the years.
It Keeps Them Independent
Once a family member is shipped off to a nursing home, they can feel trapped or isolated, as most care facilities require them to go to a new location outside of their town. They know no one and nothing. By utilizing senior home care, the patient can go about their routine as usual, keeping them independent. Whether that means Sunday mornings at church, Thursday afternoon grocery shopping, or Tuesday night BINGO with the girls at the community center, their routine will remain intact and healthy.
It is a Financially Sound Decision
Nursing homes and senior care centers can cost thousands of dollars per month, fiscally burdening both the patient and their family and quickly burning through savings that didn’t need to be spent. In-home care is surprisingly affordable and customizable to your senior’s unique requirements. Whether they just need an hour check-in once a day or full care, you pay according to what you need.
Care is Specialized to Their Needs
Speaking of customizable care, senior home care takes into consideration the unique needs of the patient. Some elderly simply needs an extra set of hands once a day to prep meals, bathe, or take a walk around the block, but that’s it. Others need more, and that’s perfectly fine.
Unlike the one-sizes-fits-all service provided at care facilities, your assigned caregiver will cater their services to the patient's health requirements, providing flexible care to suit their needs as they change. Plus, if, over time, the patient needs more and more help, the caregiver’s services will expand to encompass everything.
It Provides Consistent Companionship
Unfortunately, family and friends of aging loved ones can’t be with them all the time. They must maintain jobs, families, and lives of their own, especially if they are located out of town. Seniors who live alone can become lonely, especially if they are not particularly outgoing or socially active.
An in-home care provider is a built-in companion. Every time they come, it is a familiar face, a friendly conversation, and an impactful human interaction, all of which can make a huge difference in their overall health.
Long-Term Care Givers Get a Break
While family members may feel they need to provide their aging family with care personally, it often comes at a high cost to the caregiver. Spourses or children, even adult children with their own kids, are not automatic nurses. They do not have the training or skillset required to care for their loved ones and themselves efficiently. Often, this leads to caregiver burnout, a state of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion that can leave them in a dark place.
Hiring senior home care gives long-term family caregivers a break. Whether it is just a few hours to reset, have personal time, run errands, or, perhaps, full caregiver replacement, this will remove some of the stress and fatigue from their plates. That peace of mind is irreplaceable and leads to a healthier, happier life for the patient and family members.
Friends & Family Can Visit Whenever
When an aging family member is sent to a care facility, they are pulled away from their social circle. Often this makes it much harder for family and friends to visit and spend time with them, especially when adding in the strict schedules and rules required at such facilities.
With in-home care, your loved one can have friends and family over whenever they please, even with the caregiver there. Love and support in abundance will make your patient’s transition into their Golden Years easier and more pleasurable.
They Can Enjoy Their Pets
Pets provide numerous benefits to aging family members, but often care facilities refuse to allow patients to keep their pets with them. Not only is the separation bad for the patient, but it leaves the pet without its loving home and owner.
With senior home care, patients get to keep their pets and all the benefits that come with them. Such perks include incentives to exercise, go outdoors, play, and socialize. Plus, they decrease feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and PTSD.
Home Instead – Your Senior Care Provider for the Tri-Cities
Are you located in the Tri-Cities and are on the hunt for an in-home caregiver for your loved one? Look no further. As a locally owned business, our team offers patients and their families friendly, responsive service right from their neighborhood. We believe in providing consistent, compassionate care to every patient to ensure they keep their dignity and homes well into their Golden Years. For more information on our tailor-made in-home senior service, please give us a call or complete our contact form to schedule a consultation.
