What to choose?
This is a choice everyone who takes care of an elderly family member has to make.
Sooner or later we all sit down and start digging through the old brochures and ads of senior assisted living apartments, home care services, private caregivers and many more options they offer for the elderly. Before making this decision, please get acquainted with the main information here, gathered and organized into a nice article. Let's compare and discuss the important features, take a look at recommendations and specialties of every option, and go through the pros and cons each of these has to offer.
Assisted living homes, in-home care: what are they?
Assisted living homes/apartments are facilities for seniors, designed to have everything their residents might need or ask to help with, but not offering 24/7 longtime support. So, these facilities are very independent and remind of regular apartments for rent. But simply readjusted to have anything an elderly person might ask for, medical staff to monitor the residents' wellbeing and of course, simplified in terms of daily routine.
In-home care is different. This is an individual, more private service, where 1 staff member will be dedicated to and taking care of just one particular person. This option seems like the one for the bedbound people, but there are many more things home care agencies can do for you: pet care, shopping, meal cooking; a caregiver can drive around, act as an assistant and much more.
Just to wrap it up: in-home care services are suitable for everyone, but the assisted living homes are more for the elderly who are pretty independent and don't require regular doctor's assistance/any other regular checkup. Independent living is great for communication and being with a fun company of other seniors, too.
Assisted Living Homes. Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Great for socialization: meeting, talking to and basically living in the same place with people of an older generation and mature understanding of things
- Cheaper in the long-run
- Gives the entire family some free space: everyone has their own place
- As a rule, the routine is on homes administration. So seniors don't do dishes and other annoying work around the house (unless they want to)
Cons:
- Way less privacy
- If a senior is used to living in the house, it will be hard to adapt to new accommodations
- Employees change very often
- Employees don't have enough staff members and time to provide EVERYONE with proper care
In-Home Care Agency. Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Personal approach, the only customer for the caregiver, one-on-one care
- Staying home and with comfort
- Can choose and stay with a particular caregiver
- No stress from moving!
- Over time the costs get lower
Cons:
- For 24/7 care it's VERY expensive
- Scheduling, controlling the appointments, payments, dates, etc
- The family has to be engaged all the time
- Almost no or 0 communication leads to social isolation
As a summary,
We at Wendy's Team recommend making this decision considering the senior's wishes. Done with housekeeping? Independent and doesn't need their doctor's every day? Then assisted living is a good option to consider. Done with changes? Wants comfort and leave everything as it is? Then think about in-home care agencies. By the way, here's (click here) an article about prices and other valuable details.
