The last thing we want for the seniors in our lives is for them to have a fall, get injured, or catch an illness. Below, you will find simple and affordable ways to help prevent an injury or illness for your grandparent, mother, father, or loved seniors.
Many seniors wait until an emergency situation, or until they fall, to set up an action plan. The best action plan that could help prevent an incident would be home care assistance. Home care is simply non-medical care of your senior or loved one who may need assistance to remain as independent as possible in their own home. Preventative in-home care can really help your senior who may be struggling to get things done in their day to day. This care could include light housekeeping, meal preparation, medication reminders, transportation, light assistance with hygiene care and many other helpful assistance tasks.
Anything that your senior is struggling with may cause a fall or an exacerbation of their illness. Thirty-One percent of falls for seniors are in their own living room, and thirty percent are in their own bedrooms. Having home care set up to assist with daily activities that usually occur in their living room or bedroom will most likely keep them out of the hospital, rehab facilities and skilled nursing facilities. It’s important to think about the future and even if it’s just one day a week, implementing a caregiver to help as well as have the client get used to someone being there.
Providing your seniors with the appropriate home care prior to any potential falls will reduce the risk of them catching any life threatening diseases, such as COVID-19. Not only will it help prevent possible illness, but will also be substantially more budget friendly than an emergency trip to the hospital.
In summary, here are the top three reasons why providing home care for your seniors, before the fall, is crucial for a safe and healthy fall season for your seniors.
#1 Home Care Prevents Your Senior From Catching an Illness Within Hospitals, Rehab Facilities, and Nursing Facilities.
“Hospitalization is costly for health systems and is a health risk for many patients, including medical complications related to the hospital stay, such as infections that might be contracted during a hospital stay, falls, unnecessary tests, and mistaken medications, as well as potential cognitive and functional harm to patients, particularly the elderly, due to being in a strange place where they have no control.”
Doing everything we can for our seniors to stay healthy, such as providing home care to prevent the need for hospital stays, is one of the best ways you can care for your parents, grandparents, or loved seniors.
“No one’s health is going to be improved by getting Covid.”
#2 Home Care is Substantially Lower in Costs Compared to Emergency Hospital or Rehab Facility Visits.
“Research shows that acute care for an in-home patient can cost, on average, 52 percent less than care in a hospital setting”.
“For example, one family spent nearly twenty-thousand dollars for their father to spend just 12 hours of care in a hospital. Contrastly, they went on to spend a mere $6,093 for over 200 hours of in-home care.”
In summary, in-home care does not necessarily need to be full time. Part time in home care, such as a few hours per day or assistance with medication and hygiene, is what can potentially prevent an incident. This incident is ultimately what leads to the need for full time treatment within a facility.
#3 Rehab Facilities are Extremely Understaffed
Not only will unexpected stays at rehab facilities be more than your budget allows, it also may result in added stress for yourself, and your senior, due to many of these facilities being understaffed and the attention to detail in care being limited.
“Understaffing leads to inadequate attention from staff, meaning residents are more likely to get hurt through falls, dehydration, malnutrition, or bedsores.”
These three topics are just a few out of many reasons why in-home care for your seniors can make a huge impact on their lives, as well as yours.
Taking the step towards committing to in-home care may be overwhelming, or you may feel like it takes away independence. But in fact, it’s the complete opposite. In-home care provides the ability for you or your senior to continue staying independent in your home, lowering the risks of needing full time care within a facility or hospital.
If you or someone you know might need home care, check out Tailored Home Care online or email www.tailoredhomecareinc.com for more information.
For more tips on caring for your seniors, head back to the Tailored Home Care Blog.
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