A recent news report out of Boston indicates that the demand for in-home care is drastically rising. The main reason, according to the news piece, is that it is being viewed as a safer alternative to any other sort of senior care that is readily available to seniors in our country.
This makes sense. In-home care effectively helps a senior citizen to stay in their own home for longer. It allows them to live the life that they are used to, with only minor changes as someone is coming into their home occasionally to help with their activities of daily living. There isn’t a lot of traffic in and out of the house as most care services are able to keep the same caregiver working with an individual. This means that there is a lot less risk of something like a virus being brought into a home.
In-home care also helps to simplify the preventive process when it comes to something like COVID-19. Only one caregiver is working with your loved one, reducing the risk of asymptomatic people coming in contact with them. Although there is still a risk of this happening, when the number of people that come in direct contact with someone are reduced from dozens to only one, the odds of contracting the virus are diminished significantly. This is the whole premise of social distancing and has already been proven to be a strong tactic when it comes to reducing the risk of exposure.
And unlike other types of senior care, the isolation and potential mental health issues that this has caused are also reduced. Your older loved one still can see family members, as long as that is how your family is choosing to distance themselves socially during this time. Your loved one remains in their own home, so they are not held to the standard that a lot of nursing homes and assisted living facilities are. If they live with you, it’s almost like nothing has changed when it comes to their social lives. They are able to do the same things that they normally would, be with the people that they love, and continue to live their lives like they’re used to.
Of course, in-home care does not mean that safety standards do not need to be met. You would still expect your caregiver to follow social distancing guidelines whenever possible, wear a mask when nearby, and follow other protocol. COVID has changed how in-home care is administered, but this is by far the least disruptive method of helping an older loved one get the care that they need. It was the least disruptive type of care before COVID, and now that new safety measures have become necessary, it’s still the least disruptive.
Are you interested in learning more about in-home care? Check out the other resources on our website! Or, if you’d like a more customized approach to how this type of care might be of help to you and your family, feel free to give us a call. One of our trained caregivers would love to sit with you and talk about this during a free consultation.
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