The Difference Between Elderly Home Care And Retirement Homes

If you have a loved one who is getting older and in increasing need of assistance, your entire family could use a helping hand. Your aging relative can be completely mobile and determined to do everything independently but it can be safer to pay for elderly home care. In other cases, moving your elderly family member into a retirement home can be the best solution overall. Both retirement homes and elderly home care may be right for your situation, so here's how you can compare these two options objectively.

What Elderly Home Care Entails

A home health aide can be hired to come visit your elderly relative's home a few times a week, daily, or even to live there. If your older loved one requires elderly home care for medical reasons, such as dementia or lack of mobility, his or her medical insurance coverage may be used to pay all associated costs. Home health aides help patients to wash themselves, get dressed, take their medications, run errands, and provide companionship. CNAs and licensed nurses can also be hired to perform elderly home care services, particularly if a client has just gotten out of surgery and has specialized medical equipment that needs to be monitored.

When a Retirement Home is Appropriate A large degree of independence can be maintained by elderly residents of retirement homes. In addition to living among their peers and being a part of a structured environment, there is always someone around to check on senior citizens living in retirement homes. If you have a loved one who wants to stay close to where their current home is but they are not within a reasonable driving distance nursing home care can be a wise choice in comparison to elderly home care.

The Difference in Expense

It may be more affordable to pay for elderly home care if all expenses are being paid by your family as opposed to being covered by insurance. Retirement homes usually cost several thousand dollars a month at minimum. Additionally, many retirement homes require the family of residents to pay for the first year in advance as there is little flexibility when it comes to financial assistance and payment plans. If your elderly loved one enjoys living in their home, doesn't want to be uprooted, and can manage to perform most tasks on their own look into elderly home care. A great relationship can be formed between your aging relative's home health aide and your family as they bond over time.