Sooner or later, we will all need some sort of assistance to maintain a required standard of living. How this assistance is received depends on many things including location, ability of person receiving care, budget and more.
We take a look into the available options and why home care should always be considered for a client’s wellness and quality of life.
When a loved one reaches the stage of life where they need some assistance, we need to consider how they receive care and support. It can be a difficult decision to make and will have a significant effect on an elderly relative as well as the relations assisting in the decisions about their care.
In certain cases, a residential care home or nursing home will be the right choice for your loved one but care at home may also be a viable option for quality of life and wellness.
Imagine if you were suddenly told that you had to pack up your belongings and move house. It isn’t a choice that you can make but rather a requirement. In a short space of time, you would go from being in familiar surroundings with your own routines to something completely new. That would be a shock to the system for anyone let alone someone who may have extra care needs.
It stands to reason that enabling someone to live in their own home surrounded by familiarity would therefore be a favourable option, especially if the care needs of that person are due to mental illness or deterioration rather than a physical ailment.
Care at home is the provision of a trained carer to the home address of the person needing care and can be booked for varying durations of times of the day or night. The frequency of visits will depend on the requirements of the individual in order to complete whichever tasks or support may need completing. Tasks can vary from cooking, cleaning, paperwork and admin, administration of medicines, companionship first aid right the way through to live in home carers residing at the address of the patient.
The benefits of home care services will always outweigh the removal of a person from their home and into residential care as long as their needs are met. Some of these benefits are as follows:
The benefits of keeping a loved one in their own home seem obvious and even insignificant in many ways. However, the familiarity of a favourite cup or chair to a loved one can be an invaluable tool for their peace of mind and mental wellbeing. We pick up on all sorts of subconscious indicators of familiarity like smells or sounds that keep us content and satisfied. Familiarity is especially important to those suffering with progressive conditions like dementia as they struggle with remembering how to undertake their daily lives in the way that they know.
Hiring home carers can allow an individual to maintain a quality of life that would not be possible when residing in a care or nursing home. Indeed, it may not be necessary for round the clock care and so in home care services are a more cost-effective option.
From the smaller things like watching preferred programmes on TV through to being taken out to appointments and events: home carers will undertake specific tasks that allow the person being cared for and their relatives to live their lives as normally as possible with minimal upheaval.
Live-in or visiting carers can offer a more personalised approach to care and health, all in the comfort of the person’s own home. If someone has an injury or illness from which they need to recover, home care will allow the person to recover more quickly and in the comfort of their own home (thus retaining mental wellbeing and reducing stress).
Losing independence can be a worrying and stressful problem for the elderly. The last thing anyone wants is to feel like a burden or have to rely on others to undertake normal daily tasks. Enabling a person to retain as much of their own routine as possible is incredibly valuable for their wellbeing.
Hiring carers in the home rather than becoming a resident of a care home means that the person can still follow their own routine of when they wake up, eat meals, watch their favourite TV programmes and receive visiting guests when they want. It is even possible for carers to escort a client to other venues for social visits and events from time to time too, ensuring that independence is achieved.
A major benefit of home care is the ability for family members and relatives to be involved in the care of their elderly relative to a greater degree. The advantages of this are numerous:
Kemble at Home have been providing live-in and home carers to Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Wales, Worcestershire and surrounding counties for nearly 30 years and are perfectly placed to provide tailored care services accordingly. Some of the benefits of hiring a carer from Kemble at Home are:
If you are considering hiring a live-in carer or visiting care then speak with us. Head over to our contact page for more information.
