5 Reasons Your Elderly Needs Home Care Service

With more than half of the elderly population requiring long-term care assistance from loved ones or caregivers, the need for a quality home care service has become a necessity. These seniors require assistance with daily tasks such as cooking, medication reminding, hygiene, and errand-running, to name a few. And it is extremely hard, not to mention unsafe, for the elderly to do such tasks alone.

In 2010, nearly one-third of the elderly population living outside nursing homes or hospitals in the United States are living alone.
That is more than 11 million seniors living by themselves, and the numbers continue to grow at a staggering pace.

However, not all elderly individuals prefer to spend their twilight years inside nursing homes and hospitals. A number of them would rather live at their own homes. Nevertheless, it shouldn’t be at the cost of neglecting their specialized health care needs. This is where reliable home care assistance comes in.

Here are the top 5 reasons why your elderly loved one needs home care service:

1. Comfort

For most elderly individuals, comfort is best achieved when they are surrounded by decades upon decades of great memories and are in a warm, welcoming environment. And more often than not, comfort is found in the client’s very own home. With a home care service, your elderly loved one can enjoy the familiar environment he or she is used to, without compromising health care and daily living needs. Home health aides can bring their brand of care and assistance straight to your loved one’s doorstep!

Simply put, living at home brings about a sense of comfort that not even the most expensive and exclusive nursing home can provide.

2. Safety

The safety of our elderly loved ones is always our top priority. And though most nursing homes today take the safety and wellbeing of their clients seriously, elder abuse and neglect is still rampant in facilities all over the country. According to nursinghomeabuseguide.org, seniors who are victims of neglect or abuse in the nursing home setting “have 300 percent greater chance of death in the 3 years following the abuse than those who aren’t abused.”

By employing a home care service for your elderly loved one, you are minimizing this great risk. Aside from this, through home a care service, your loved one’s home is fully assessed, and safety recommendations are made to ensure that your loved one is safe and sound. Devices such as secure, slip-proof bathroom aids, nightlights, grab bars, among many others may be installed for client safety.

On top of these home safety precautions, a qualified home health aide will make sure that your loved one remains safe — by assisting them as they go up and down staircases, showering, and taking the right amount of medications, to name a few.

3. Personalized approach to healthcare

We want to be able to give nothing but the best kind of care possible to our elderly loved ones. And quality care is hard to achieve in a nursing home setting, which is, on most occasions, understaffed. When this happens, patient neglect and health problems, such as the development of bedsores, malnutrition, among many others, occur.

This is not what we envision our loved ones to have at any point in their golden years. Through a home care service, your elderly loved one will be well taken care of. Focusing on your loved one’s needs, the full attention and energy of your home health aide will be focused on helping your loved one achieve rehabilitation and comfort.

Not only that, but a one-on-one approach to providing health care assistance will benefit your loved one better, as he or she will be able to build rapport with the home health aide. This will boost your loved one’s mood and morale, which is simply what we are all aiming for.

4. Sense of Independence

The loss of independence, for most elderly individuals, is an understandably difficult concept to come to terms with. Most of these individuals have generally relied on their own capacities their whole lives — and to suddenly not be able to enjoy the things they used to is not easy. Accepting the loss of independence is especially hard when your loved one is cooped up in a nursing home facility.

With a home health aide by your loved one’s side, the complicated and frustrating feeling associated with loss of independence will be correctly countered with the necessary support needed, whether it be physical or emotional in nature.

By allowing your loved ones to do what they love doing — whether it be going to the park, tending to their flower gardens, watching movies, or reading books — home health aides encourage independence by providing assistance and support at all times.

In short, they empower your loved ones to do whatever it is that makes them happy and contented.

5. Great quality of life

The elderly who are able to:
Live comfortably at their own homes;
Remain actively engaged in their interests and hobbies;
Be able to keep healthy;
Socialize with their families and friends regularly;

These are the ones who report having a great quality of life. And sadly, a large portion of the elderly population residing in nursing home facilities are not able to experience this, as they have limited means to exert their independence in such settings.

Through a personal home health aide, your loved one can experience a high level of satisfaction and well-being as they course through their lives’ latter years.

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