What Different Types of Senior Care Actually Include
Most families only start Googling what kind of care is available when they’re in crisis mode. Someone falls down, gets diagnosed with something horrible, or forgets how to take their medication. Then everyone scrambles to see what kind of help actually exists and what it means.
The problem is that senior care is a blanket term that covers everything from someone checking in twice a week to twenty-four/seven medical staff oversight. Knowing what each entails makes the difference between paying for things you don’t need or going without integral measures that would have kept someone out of the hospital.
Companion Care and What It Means
Companion care is the least invasive level. This is for seniors who can still manage on their own but shouldn’t be left alone for long periods of time. The person who provides this type of care will not help them shower or remind them to take their medication – they’ll merely be an accomplice to the aging family member to ensure that nothing goes wrong while they’re in the same house.
What does this look like? They could play cards together, catch up on Wheel of Fortune, go for a stroll around the block, or just sit in silence and talk. They will likely prepare meals and assist with light housekeeping. The major thing they’ll be doing is watching for problems. If your dad seems a little off kilter when watching Jeopardy, or your mom claims she’s having chest pains during commercial break, there’s someone there to sound the alarm as opposed to hours going by with no one knowing that something could have been a problem.
Companion care works well for those experiencing isolation and mild memory concerns. It’s also often recommended after a hospitalization when doctors discharge someone but say they cannot be home alone yet, in addition, however, they do not require actual nursing care either. Costs are less because you’re not paying for medical training, you’re paying for a responsible adult who knows when to call someone for assistance.
Personal Care When Tasks Become Challenging
Here’s where it gets a little more serious. Personal care (otherwise known as custodial care) is when someone needs help with ADLs, or “activities of daily living,” which is the technical phrase for basic tasks like bathing, dressing, toileting and feeding.
Many don’t realize how quickly these activities become dangerous without help. Getting out of the tub results in falls like you wouldn’t believe. Buttons and zippers become impossible feats with arthritic hands. The person with Parkinson’s may need their food cut up for them and reminders when to chew before they choke.
Personal care aides attend to these very personal (no pun intended) endeavors with whatever level of assistance is needed. For some seniors, this means standing by during a shower in case they slip and fall. For others, this means full assistance through any and everything. These aides also typically perform medication reminders (not administration – that’s reserved for nursing), mobility assistance, and keeping track of whether or not someone is eating and drinking enough throughout the day.
Many families in the Philadelphia area looking for this type of in home support turn to senior care services in Philadelphia that can offer just the right amount of help, based upon what’s needed as opposed to strict packages that force people into a specific type of care.
Skilled Nursing Care at Home
This is the medical stuff. Skilled nursing means someone who’s an RN – registered nurse – or LPN – licensed practical nurse, comes to your house to perform health-related endeavors that require a nursing license by law. We’re talking wound care, IV administering, catheter changes, injections, therapeutic stretches, monitoring blood pressure for chronic issues – that which requires medical judgment/training.
The thing about skilled nursing is that it’s almost always part-time unless someone is dire straits. A nurse might come three times a week to see how a surgical dressing has healed. A nurse might come each day for two weeks after discharge just to ensure blood pressure remains stable and there are no complications.
Insurance, including Medicare programs, often back skilled nursing care at home because it’s more cost effective than keeping someone in an acute rehab unit or long-term care facility. But there are caveats. The skill has to be “medically necessary” and required by a physician. Once someone stabilizes and requires more maintenance than acute needs, insurance often will stop covering the costs.
Respite Care for When Even Respite Is Needed
Respite care isn’t so much its own category – as much as it is temporary coverage utilizing whatever level of care someone employs. The point is to give family caregivers a break so they don’t reach their own breaking point.
It can last anywhere from a few hours to a couple of weeks. Maybe there’s a daughter who has been caring for her mother who wants to take her family on vacation. Maybe there’s a son who’s been managing it all who’s going to need surgery and can’t lift or assist his father for a bit. Respite care fills in the void.
Some families use it regularly, as in they have someone come in every Saturday so their primary caregiver gets at least one guaranteed day off every week. Others save it for emergencies or special occasions. The care provided during respite is aligned with whatever the senior generally requires, companion care, personal care or skilled nursing.
Memory Care and Dementia Care
Memory care deserves its own spotlight because dementia changes everything about need levels. Someone may be physically fit and able with Alzheimer’s or dementia but require more oversight than a companion caregiver can provide.
Memory caregivers are trained in redirection strategies, handling difficult behaviors, building routines that promote understanding but limit confusion and keeping persons safe when they can no longer gauge what is dangerous. They know how to handle when someone insists they’re “going home” while sitting on their own couch; they know how to manage when someone forgets they’ve eaten and requests dinner again.
The tricky part about memory care at home is that as time goes on, you may need someone there more hours or twenty-four/seven. Someone with advanced dementia cannot be left alone, they may wander outside aimlessly; they may leave the stove on; they may try to drive a car that they cannot remember how to drive safely anymore.
Determining What You Actually Need
Most families need various levels of care over time. Someone may begin with companion care three times per week; then personal care as mobility decreases; then skilled nursing after surgery/medical events. The key is being honest about what they can and cannot do comfortably/safely anymore.
Start by considering what your family member cannot do safely alone anymore. Can they shower without falling? Remember their medications? Make decisions regarding when to call for help? Get to the bathroom in time? Those answers give you an idea of what level of care makes sense now, even if it’s difficult to acknowledge that level of help has become necessary.
The second piece is considering what would happen if no one was there. Would a fall go unnoticed for hours? Would medication be missed – or doubled? Would confusion result in something dangerous? This isn’t about seeing worst-case scenarios, but instead, seeing real dangers that could happen when someone’s abilities have decreased but where they’ve lived had yet to catch up with that reality.