What Are the Differences Between Home Care and Hospice Care?
Do you really know the differences between elder care options? It’s National Home Care and Hospice Month this November. Do you know what hospice care is? Do you understand how it differs from home care? Here are seven facts about these forms of elder care.
Senior Care in Fairfax County VA: Home Care vs Hospice Care
Home Care Facts
#1 – Home care is usually divided into several categories. Personal care covers things like showering, dressing, and grooming. Homemaking covers aspects like laundry, making beds, cleaning flooring, and meal preparation. Companionship, running errands, transportation, and life management (making and keeping appointments or medication reminders) are the others. Insurance rarely pays for home care.
#2 – Skilled nursing care can be a home care service. It requires nurses, however, as some of the duties involve administering medications, cleaning wounds, or catheter/feeding tube care.
#3 – Home care involves a professional caregiver or family member/friend coming to the home where your parent lives. Caregivers stay as long as you’ve requested. Your parents don’t have to leave the comfort of their home with home care services.
#4 – You can work with an elder care agency to customize the care services your parent gets. Some seniors need caregivers for companionship. People with Alzheimer’s may need extensive home care services to make sure they don’t wander off.
Hospice Care Facts
#1 – Hospice care is end-of-life care. It’s the level of care needed to keep a person comfortable in the final stages of life. Insurance may cover some or all of the cost.
#2 – Hospice care can take place in a senior citizen’s home or an elder care facility or hospital. In a home setting, a family member is often there to provide care, but hospice care professionals are there for support and to administer pain medications to ensure the patient’s comfort.
#3 – Hospice care usually involves a team of people. There’s a doctor who oversees the case and makes sure medications are prescribed correctly. There are nurses, home health aides, social workers, and bereavement counselors usually. You may see some of these workers daily and others may only pop in once a week or after the patient passes away.
Elder care services are not something you should decide on in a stressed, rushed moment.
Sit down with your parents and talk about the future. If something happens, how do they feel about home care versus moving into assisted living? If an incurable condition is diagnosed, what do they want for end-of-life care? It’s a good time to see if there’s a living will and make sure your parents have one drawn up if they don’t.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Senior Care in Fairfax County, VA, please contact the caring staff at LivinRite Home Care. Call Us Today at (703) 634-9991.
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