How Compassionate Care Is Helping Families Keep Their Loved Ones at Home

For many, the idea of an elderly family member being sent to a nursing home to meet their care needs is something that they’d only consider as a last resort. Importantly, although nursing home care can be the right decision for some families to take, there are alternatives. Many of these options highlight how compassionate care helps keep loved ones at home.

In many cases, it is possible to provide in-home care that supports a much more independent lifestyle. Such services can still be delivered with the same sort of professionalism that you would expect of a residential nursing home but the key difference is that they’re carried out in the home that the person receiving them already knows and loves.

Importantly, in-home compassionate care is available both privately and through local authority funding. Some people take advantage of it to help bolster the sort of care that is already given by carers within the family circle. In other cases, it can be procured to take charge of all the care needs of an individual or ageing couple.

The key differentiator is that in-home care often feels easier for people who need the extra support to accept it. This is certainly the case among dementia sufferers, for example, since they invariably benefit immeasurably if they continue to live in familiar surroundings.

Whatever your reason for wanting compassionate care to be given in the home, there are numerous options available today. Read on to find out more.

Domiciliary Care Services

Any care that is delivered in the home is said to be domiciliary. Care plans can be very extensive for people who have mobility needs and who might require personal care – such as help getting dressed or going to the toilet, for example.

However, domiciliary care might be as straightforward as popping in a couple of times a week to carry out a few domestic chores, prepare a hot meal or even do something as simple as sitting down with their client for a few minutes for a chat over a cup of tea.

If carers are preparing meals for your loved ones, it is important that dietary requirements are clearly provided. These could relate to medical conditions or personal preferences including a vegan or vegetarian diet. Even if a loved one has lost the capacity to understand what food they are eating or decisions they have made in the past, their food choices should be respected.

Dementia Care Services

A specialist service, dementia care providers will often train their in-home care workers in this condition to help improve communication skills.

Since dementia is a degenerative disorder, care needs tend to change over time. According to Anglian Care, an in-home care provider in Essex, good dementia care is about adjusting care plans as requirements alter. Crucially, this is the case whether you are talking about early-onset dementia or geriatric forms of the condition.

Geriatric Care Services

Many people only require a little support to be able to continue living in their own homes as they age. Physical mobility might start to fall away as a family member ages, so going to the shops or cleaning might not be possible any longer.

Care workers can take care of these chores to allow for greater freedom to enjoy other things in life meaning that family visits don’t always consist of a long list of jobs to get through. It is very easy to see how compassionate care that helps keep loved ones at home benefits both the loved one and their immediate family.

Overnight Care Services

Although daycare visits are the norm, compassionate care services in the home can also extend to overnight visits. These tend to be needed when someone requires assistance in the night, to go to bed and to get up again in the morning. For some, this could be just a temporary measure while they recover from an illness or an operation.

Live-In Care Services

When more substantial in-home care is required, it might be necessary to arrange for a live-in carer. Such care is usually tailored to the unique set of circumstances of the individual concerned.

Often, a live-in carer will be supported by other care workers so that they can get a break from time to time. Live-in compassionate care is something that can follow on from dementia care services when the condition has deteriorated to such an extent that 24-hour care has become necessary.

Even in such situations where extensive support is required, live-in compassionate care helps keep loved ones at home.

Respite Care Services

Commonly, respite care is provided to help family members who act as the usual carers of a parent or other elderly relative. People require a temporary replacement to deliver the compassionate care that is usually carried out for all sorts of reasons.

Sometimes, the carer themselves might have become ill or need to go into hospital. There again, it could be a change in personal circumstances that means temporary respite care is needed, such as a house move, a change of job or a holiday that has been booked.

Whatever the reason, respite care packages help to bridge the gap and ensure relatives can continue to receive care in their homes in the way they’re used to.

As AGE UK explains, you might be able to get financial support from the council to help you take a break, but respite services are means-tested so you or the person you care for may have to contribute towards the cost.

In this article, we have outlined a number of different care options available for families wanting to keep their loved ones at home. Of course, dedicated care services and care plans can be designed to suit the individual needs of each service user, so talking to a good care service provider can help you find the most suitable care plans for your loved one.