Home Care Agencies Ask: Are you Overlooking the Best Housing Option?

Home care agencies like Comfort Keepers Sarasota, provides your mom or dad with care in the comfort of their own home

Many people from the Baby Boomer generation find themselves in what is known as the sandwich generation, where they are caring for both their children and their parents at the same time. Caring for your parents may put you in an uneasy situation, especially since your parents raised you. Baby Boomers often face decisions to ensure the best living arrangements for their parents. Many struggle to understand what their options are? Where do you begin to look for answers? Today, most people rely on the internet to find the information they need.

With a big decision like this that involves your parents, the first place to look for answers is to talk with them, assuming they are able to partake in the conversation. What do they want to do? Do they need immediate help or are they looking for a long term solution? One of the most important pieces to the puzzle is to get an understanding of their finances. Do your parents have a long term care insurance policy? Do they have a sizable nest egg and are they willing to spend their funds on the care they need? Can they afford to stay in their home or is a reverse mortgage an option? These are the answers you need as a starting point to see what care options you have. Keep in mind it has been shown that the loss of control over the decision to move can affect older adults satisfaction with services was well as their emotional well-being, so it is very important to keep your loved one included on the decision making process.

Some people believe if your loved ones are struggling to handle their daily activities you have only two options: have them move in with you or place your parents in an assisted living. Providing care for your parents in your own home may seem to be working out at the beginning, but can become complicated, an emotional nightmare and become an unexpected burden on the whole family. Loving your parent is quite different than living with them. But moving your parent into an assisted living facility may leave you feeling guilty and cause your parents to have feelings of resentment.

But we want to let you know, there is a third option: care in their home from local home care agencies. In-Home Care is an option that many people overlook or are unaware of. For those that have worked hard all their lives and have the financial means, in-home care can truly be the best option for everyone. Your parent gets to remain in their own home with comfortable surroundings and you can have peace of mind knowing their health and safety is being looked after.

In-home care can be provided for as little as one hour, one day a week, up to 24 hours, 7 days a week. Care can be provided by home care agencies or private caregivers. An agency is licensed, bonded and insured, but only agencies that hire caregivers as W2 employees make sure the caregiver in the home is also insured. Agencies with W2 caregivers are responsible for background screening, hiring, handling payroll, training their staff, AND supervision of your loved one and the caregiver.

Home care agencies can provide your loved one with assistance with instrumental activities of daily living (IADL’s) such as meal preparation, medication reminders, housekeeping, and transportation. Or even provide companion care that improves their overall quality of life. Some agencies can also provide a Home Health Aide to assist with hands on activities of daily living (ADL’s) such as bathing, transferring, feeding and help with personal care in the bathroom. The best agencies will send out a case manager to meet with your parents, learn about their individual needs and develop a care plan which allows them to live independently with the right amount of help in the comfort of their own home. At the same time as an In-Home Consultation, a home safety review should be done to address any safety issues that need to be addressed to help prevent unexpected injuries and falls. Since your loved one’s needs can change quickly, the agency’s case manager should be checking in on your parents on a regular basis and revising and updating the plan of service as needed. At Comfort Keepers, we are unique in that we also have a Family Care Portal so approved family members can login, read and leave notes for staff, check caregiver schedules, and review invoices. This portal gives our clients the ability to be more involved in their parents care no matter where they live.

One of the most important aspects to look at when considering care is the cost. Depending on the need, in-home care can be much less expensive. Some things to look at would be:

• Do they need someone a few hours a day to keep them on track?
• Are you concerned about leaving your parent alone?

Even in the worst case scenario, family and friends might handle some of the needed schedule and supplement with professional caregivers. Let’s look at some typical costs:

If you needed a Home Health Aide 3 hours 5 days a week. That would be 15 hours x $ 23/ hour = $345 a week or $1380 a month. Typical rates for Assisted Living Facilities in Sarasota average between $3000 and over $6000 for room and board depending on the room type and amount of care needed. If the person that is receiving care has a spouse, with In-Home care, a spouse is often cared for at no additional cost, but in some assisted living you may need to add more to the numbers above. New technology and monitoring systems can help to offset some of the needs of having a caregiver onsite. Technologies like medication dispensers, emergency monitors and telehealth systems which can alert a responsible party if there is something out of the ordinary. When making your decision, please keep in mind that in assisted living you don’t get one-on-one care. Often times you might be sharing a room.

The benefits of people remaining in their home are numerous. Keeping your loved one in the home they lived in for many years may lead to increased longevity. People with cognitive issues, like Alzheimer’s or dementia, typically do best in a familiar environment. Their homes are filled with fond memories of raising their children, having their grandchildren come for visits, family dinners and holidays.

As always, Comfort Keepers Sarasota stands ready to help your family with discussing the options. (941) 921-4747