Reasons Why Home Care Services Provide Value

When families, friends and neighbors ask me about the benefits of home care services for the elderly, I have multiple answers to consider:

Home care is safer.  Recent research has shown evidence that patients in hospitals are at much greater risk of infection than anywhere else. (Interesting and ironic that where people go in attempting to get “better” often results in the opposite.) It is no secret that people pick up infections and other complications when they live amid a chronically ill population (such as in a hospital or long-term care facility). This environmental exposure is greatly minimized case when seniors are cared for at home.

Home care means personalized care.  At Home Care Partners, we have been approached by many staff members looking for the ability to provide more meaningful, individualized, and personalized care services to seniors. Their previous work environment has been overloaded with patients, which did not allow them to really spend any meaningful time with their assigned elders. These staff members decided to move onto an environment where they can exclusively focus on 1 – 2 seniors, as opposed to being assigned 15 – 20 cases on a floor. Care becomes a one-to-one proposition in the home. You get this nowhere else.

Home care often gets the entire family involved in providing care.  There is value to sharing the tasks related to homecare. It can minimize the burden, while including family and friends with specific tasks or scheduled time of care. Local or extended family members can often take an active role at different times of the day. Socialization is a huge issue for seniors. My parents have neighbor down the street who stops by 3-5 days per week simply to say “hello”.

Home care reduces the stress that often accompanies illness.  For many elders, the ability to remain in the comfort of home is a huge relief when the other option is to temporarily or permanently re-locate into a new living environment. Seniors can sleep in their own bed. Watch their own television. Seniors know where all the light switches are located, where all the over-the-counter medications are located in the bathroom. An illness can create or increase some anxiety, worry and stress. But these elements are not nearly as great when care is practiced in the secure environs of home.

Home care is the most effective form of health care delivered in terms of customer satisfaction.  If you could receive physical therapy, nursing attention, or companionship care while remaining in your own home, wouldn’t you prefer it? As compared to driving to the hospital or facility for an appointment or session? It all comes back to the fact that people prefer to be at home. And the effectiveness of this interaction is strengthened by the specificity of individualized care and attention that seniors receive while in their own home.