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Is your client looking for daily care for a loved one who increasingly needs it as they age? The parent has been left alone at the end of their life and feels abandoned. The family cannot take care of them, and they can no longer manage without help, so they have decided to place them in a nursing home. This decision deserves careful consideration. Before making a final judgment, the individual pros and cons should be carefully weighed.
Nursing home – one caregiver for many clients
The biggest disadvantage of nursing homes is that the caregiving staff has to attend to many patients at the same time. They do not have the opportunity to care for each elderly person individually, as is possible with full-time care in the patient's home environment. Often, one caregiver is responsible for ten patients who need care. With full-time home care, which is the second possible care option, the elderly person does not feel useless, as if they have been left to spend their days in an environment with strangers.
Fees in senior care facilities
Senior care facilities are not free and charge various additional fees. Therefore, care in a nursing home is not necessarily cheaper than 24-hour home care, although this is commonly assumed. With rising prices due to the current situation—life after a pandemic triggered by war—it's expected that these price increases will be passed on to nursing homes. Of course, the total costs also depend on the type and level of amenities of each facility. Public facilities generally charge less than private ones. Better facilities come with additional fees. Sanatoriums are among the most expensive facilities but offer better quality care. Residences with a pool or sauna are very costly. In such facilities, physiotherapists are often present, and their services are not cheap. Additional fees are often related to better meals due to special diets, a television in the room, or a private room. Sometimes, retirees pay for service packages they ultimately do not use.
Nursing home and numerous restrictions
The disadvantage of nursing homes is often the presence of routine. The course of each day is more or less repetitive. Everything is regulated at regular intervals, which may be appealing to some elderly individuals. However, with home care, there is significantly more variety in daily activities. Most of the time, grandparents cannot take their pets with them to nursing homes—they are attached to them, have built a close bond, and will miss them. However, with 24-hour home care, the pet stays with them.
Nursing home and visits
In nursing homes, visits from family members are only allowed at specific times. Typically, there is one hour per day for visits, with slightly longer time slots on weekends. When a caregiver looks after an elderly person at home, family members can visit at any time. Additionally, nursing home residents do not have as much freedom to express their needs or intervene in their care if something is not right. If they are unhappy with the care in the home, the only option is often to remove the elderly person. Considering the recent situation with COVID-19, visits to nursing homes were very complicated. People were unable to communicate with their loved ones for a long time to avoid risking their health or that of other residents in the home.
Unfamiliar environment and disorientation problems
It is true that the resident in a nursing home has peers among whom they can make friends, talk, watch television, or play cards and chess. However, they may also want to stay alone in their room. Single rooms are usually available in more luxurious facilities, which come with additional costs. An elderly person might feel disoriented in the home since it is an unfamiliar environment at first. This, of course, also depends on the nature of the patient and the diagnosis. If someone suffers from Alzheimer’s and the associated disorientation problems, adjusting to life in such a facility will be very challenging. In such cases, it is better for the person to remain in their own home, where they are familiar and have spent many years. They feel more comfortable there. A better way to stay in touch with peers is for seniors to attend a day care center that is open around the clock, where they can spend time with friends, socialize, or even go on outings.
