Why Senior Care Is So Important To Your Aging Parents
By Space Coast Daily // May 7, 2019
As your parents age, they will need assistance for their health care and in doing their daily activities. Senior care aims to make your parents feel cared for while maintaining their self-respect.
There are various senior care approaches, such as residential care and home care, which will depend on the needs, culture, and preferences of the elderly. Whichever approach you or your family chooses, senior care is essential to your aging parents.
Importance of Home Care
1. Provides Less Costly Care
Home care costs less than keeping your parent confined in a hospital. This is suitable for your family if your parent has already been discharged from the hospital, but still needs medical services during their recovery period.
It is a more practical approach because it is a cheaper care alternative. Even if you choose to get the services of a home care company, it will still have more affordable rates compared to the monthly or annual contract fees of a residential care facility.
Moreover, the availability of in home senior care in a lot of places makes its service fee cheaper.
2. Allows Your Parents to Age with Dignity
Your parents would probably like it better if they can continue rehabilitative care at home. An environment wherein they are surrounded by family and friends can help promote their recovery.
Because living in an age-friendly community helps the elderly live comfortably, a place they call home is beneficial for their overall well-being.
The comfort and security that one’s own home brings help in the speedy recovery of older adults. Another great advantage of home care is that it enables your parents to maintain a certain degree of independence doing regular daily activities, allowing them to age with dignity.
3. Provides One-on-One Attention
The primary advantage of home care is that your parents are given one-on-one attention for all of their needs. Home care company caregivers are also trained to make their care a personal affair so that the elderly are entirely comfortable.
4. Builds Close Family Ties
In home care, the caregiver is usually a family member or someone close to the elderly. This care approach allows family members to visit without the hassle of limited visiting hours that a residential home care implements.
It also encourages family participation in the care process and builds closer family ties.
The family members, as sources of support, play an essential role in your parents’ recovery because a positive and loving environment helps in the elderly’s emotional and mental health.
On your part, home care reduces the guilty feeling that is associated with leaving one’s parents in a nursing home. It also gives you peace of mind, being able to monitor the range and level of care actually provided to your parents.
Acquiring the services of a caregiver will allow you to adequately provide for your parents’ daily and health care needs without neglecting other responsibilities you have with your children and your work.
Importance of Residential Care
1. Cost-effective
Sending your parents to a residential senior care facility can be costly, but it may be a better option for you if long-term home care will be more expensive. This is also a better alternative if the services at home can no longer provide for your parents’ needs, especially since these tend to increase over time.
2. Provides a Community Setting
In an assisted living facility or nursing home, your parent will become part of a senior community setting. This decreases the possibility of your parents keeping themselves isolated or spending most of their time lying in bed. Some senior care communities even cater to senior couples with a flexible system, so you will be assured that both your parents are well taken care of.
In the residential facility, they are assisted whenever needed. Also, the design of services, activities, and housing are custom-fit for their movement capacity, which allows them the freedom to do tasks independently in a dignified manner.
3. Respect for the Rights of the Elderly
Laws and regulations govern licensed facilities. This means that you are sure that your parents will be protected from abuse and neglect even though you cannot always be present to check and monitor them. The residential care facility should also be able to provide you with the specific types of services and care plan for your parent.
Conclusion
Deciding on the type of care for your aging parents can be difficult. You would have to pay close attention not only to the unique needs of your parents but also to their wants and preferences.
Always remember that care in their own homes or a residential facility both involves a significant lifestyle change. So in choosing between the two senior care approaches, you have to make sure that your parents will feel comfortable, happy, and dignified.
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