Home Care or Aged Care: Which is Best for You?

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Taking care of the elderly is an emotional and practical hurdle. With advanced healthcare and extended life expectancy rates, we are fortunate enough to have our parents and grandparents around. However, the question arises, how do we ensure they get all the attention and care they deserve? Thanks to the care and hospitality industry, we can now choose the best options for our loved ones without compromising on things that matter to us. The two kinds of elderly care facilities are Home care and Residential or Aged care.

Nature of services

Home care is the kind of intervention where professional caretakers such as those from CDPAP – the Consumer Directed Personal Assistant Program come to the home of the person and offer their services, in ways that are convenient for them. Better still, the caregiver, also known as a Personal Assistant, can be a close relative – such as your son or daughter – or a neighbor, friend, or colleague. The level and manner of care depends on the person availing this facility. Some of the services included are cleaning, helping with meals and assisted showers. Home care is usually opted by people who are partially capable of taking care of themselves and need specific assistance. This facility retains their lifestyle to a large extent, as the surroundings remain the same, and the interventions made by the service provider is also tailored to fit into their lifestyles and preferences.

Residential care or aged care is usually opted elderly people who are incapable of living independently. Since this involves living in a facility run by a service provider, the nature of services offered will be round the clock and more hands-on. This is more needs-based and less about individual preferences. This type of service ensures that the person is taken care of, even when they are incapable of asking for help. However, this type of care can be emotionally and mentally taxing for elderly people due to the drastic change in their surroundings. Fortunately, a lot of service providers often focus on smoothing this transition.

Lifestyle transition

Home care, as mentioned in the nature of services, involves minimal disruption of the aged person’s lifestyle. Staying in familiar surroundings, with neighbors they have known for a while and trees and birds they are used to, can help maintain the sense of stability they require at this stage. Home care ensures this continuity to some extent. However, with Home care, almost everything comes down to the person who comes into your home. It is important that you get the right person for the job. This can depend on several factors, such as the level of care needed, medical assistance required etc. Unfortunately not all facilities offer the choice to the clients. This can cause quite a bit of unrest for the client. If the person doesn’t fit your home atmosphere, it can be quite disruptive to your lifestyle despite living in familiar surroundings.

Aged care or residential care can be a huge change to deal with for a lot of people. Especially during the advanced years of their lives, which is also the reason why they choose residential care, it can be emotionally taxing. It can take a while to get used to the new surroundings as people. While they are in the process of getting used to the place, it can be quite disorienting for elderly people who already have a difficult time navigating through space and time. However, most aged care centers try to mitigate this issue by bringing in family and friends consistently in the first few days and assign partners as help. This way, the transition is relatively smooth.

Maintaining a social life

Because of the nature of service provided and the relatively able-bodied clients under Home care, this facility is often well-rounded in terms of the client’s overall well-being. Most service providers take into consideration the client’s existing social life when designing a service plan. In fact, home care providers often ensure that their clients have as active a social life as they can and encourage community participation. This includes planning picnics or movie nights with the community or with a representative of the service provider. With old age, a lot of people tend to shrink their world into themselves or their family members. With depression rates rising among elderly people, emphasizing on social life during this time is crucial for their overall well-being.

Aged care has its limitations when it comes to maintaining a social life, both due to the nature of service and the advanced age of the people who opt for aged care. However, even within these limitations, most aged care facilities offer opportunities for social engagement. Many people who move into these facilities make friends there and form communities of their own, with people in their age group. This is especially beneficial to aged people who don’t have people of their own age near their own house. These days several programs also focus on inter-mingling of people under aged care with the younger generation. Programs such as kindergartens collaborating with aged care facilities have proven beneficial to both age groups.

Conclusion

When choosing an elderly care facility, it is important to take into account several factors, including what the elderly person prefers. Most people prefer Home care to aged care, although this can be tricky in certain situations. Ultimately it comes down to the kind of care the person requires and the extent of support and assistance that can be provided.

Find out more about In Home Care business on this home health related website.