At some point, older adults will need more help than you can provide. Whether your loved one lives with you or not, home care is a great alternative to an elder care facility. Home care occurs when a professional caregiver moves into your home or the home of an aging family member. A prerequisite is that the resident caregiver has a place to sleep and 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep in a 24-hour period.
While internal caregivers live in your loved one's place of residence, they only provide care 16 hours a day. In addition, a new elderly resident caregiver relieves the current caregiver every few days, meaning that there is no consistency as to who is providing the care. If daytime is when your older loved one requires the most care, then a resident caregiver is a good option. However, if you want to receive care 24 hours a day, 24-hour home care is a better alternative.
Talk to a geriatric care manager. These specially trained professionals can help you find resources to make your daily life easier. They'll work with you to create a care plan and find the services you need. Geriatric care managers can be especially helpful when family members live far away.
Your doctor or other healthcare provider may recommend a geriatric care manager, or you can contact the Aging Life Care Association for a list of these professionals in your area. Non-medical caregivers can also be part of a home care team that includes nurses or physical therapists if the person also needs medical care. Learn how the illness could make it difficult for a person to move around or take care of themselves in the future. By reducing costs, it's possible to pay for a considerably larger amount of home care in a new, less expensive location.
Volunteer students are usually unable to provide comprehensive care, but they can often run errands, do household chores, and provide companionship to older adults. To find out if a PACE program exists where you live or how to contact the program, check the official Medicare website. If you're concerned about providing an appropriate care for a loved one in a home or care facility, let North River Home Care help. If your loved one can get by with partial assisted living care, complementary care may be the right option for you.
Many adult day care centers accept people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia. It's also possible to reach a “life” agreement (also called a “senior agreement”), which involves selling the policy to a life settlement company in exchange for a lump sum. In addition, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) operates its own adult day care centers for eligible veterans. While caregivers aren't doctors, some have additional licenses and are known as home health aides. The cost is often high depending on the location, type of housing and any regular care requirements, with an additional cost for memory care.
If your loved one owns the home they live in, a reverse mortgage could raise enough money to pay for home care. However, the primary goal of a caregiver is to allow an older person to “age in their place safely and with a sense of independence.” Federal, state and local governments offer many resources for older adults and their families and caregivers.
