This issue comes up monthly, weekly, or even daily when you are older, or have parents that need assistance. There is a lot to consider when trying to make this decision or trying to guide a loved one in making the best choice for themselves.
Home Care (in-home care) Pros:
Most importantly, you stay in your own home- your space surrounded by your comforts. This retains the familiarity in which those with a diminishing capacity thrive in. Home care offers a variety of levels of care from your bi-weekly visits to help with errands and appointments, to your round-the-clock care and hospice support. It allows for flexible schedules that are catered to your needs and your already established daily routine. In-home care is one-on-one focused on you and your needs. Your caregiver is your companion, your chauffeur, and your private chef (maybe not a Michelian 5 star one though). Depending on your rent and mortgage, believe it or not, this might be your most affordable option.
There are excellent resources available geared towards aging in place. Not only does your local senior center offer a vast array of group activities that your caregiver can bring you to, but there are also great programs like meals on wheels to help on the days when it’s just you. And when you do need some time to yourself, be it for your garden in your private backyard, or some bird watching from your front steps, there are companies like life alert that make help just a button away.
Not everybody needs the same care. In-home care helps you get the care you need and when you need it most.
Cons:
Without family involvement or regular visits from friends, staying in-home can be lonely. If you are not receiving an ample level of support, the burden falls on you to figure out how to fill your time and remain active in your home or community.
Depending on your needs, your home may need to be altered to be a safer setting for your independence. And speaking of your home, that also needs care. You would still be responsible for the upkeep of your home. This is an added expense in itself if you don’t have the abilities to do this yourself.
Home care can be expensive depending on your hours.
Assisted Living Pros:
Assisted Living is community-based living. It offers a restaurant-like dining experience with meals prepared with things like sodium and cholesterol intake in mind. You and your new best friend have a dinner date every night! You have an activities director leading in group exercises, crafts, and various other activities right at your front door. Sometimes, a special outing might even take place.
You have one cost of living each month which includes your rent, your food, and a certain level of care all built into one. You don’t have to worry about a caregiver calling out because in a facility, you have a whole team of caregivers staffed at any given time to ensure you receive your daily care.
Cons:
While it provides the comfort of knowing you have a team, you may not know that team, and they may not know you. Depending on the level of care you selected when starting this journey, you may only be allotted 5 minutes per hour every hour. This may not be enough to ensure that all your needs are met.
You may not like your community neighbors. And while we may not like our neighbors at home either, there we at least have space to ourselves. What’s good about facility living might also be its downfall. It is a place for all- with all needs, and all levels of cognitive impairment. Your field trip to the casino might be next to Mildred who forgot that she isn’t Sally today.
Should there be an outbreak, Covid, Shingle, influenza (flu), Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), Norovirus, Parainfluenza Viruses, you are more likely to be exposed and confined to your living space prohibitive of visitors.
Assisted living is expensive- between $6,000 to $9,000 per month.
