What Are The Advantages of Live-in Care
- Posted by:
- Admin
- Tags:
- Live in Care, 24 hour care, Care at home, elderly care
- Posted date:
- 19-11-2020
Have you been considering: What are the advantages of live-in care? We look at what is Live-in Care and if it is right for you and your loved one.
Live-in Care: What is it?
Live-in care services are where a care agency sends someone to live in a person's home that needs to be looked after.
It is a form of round-the-clock care that sees all clients' specific needs 24-hours a day, seven days a week. Full-time, live-in care at home can often be the best option for elderly clients with complex and long-term care needs.
In some cases, clients have previously received temporary domiciliary care, but they now require a more comprehensive quality of care. In other cases, people have attempted to acclimate to residential nursing homes but would prefer to remain in their own home.
Live-in care is also a brilliant, cost-effective option for couples who both have complex care needs and wish to stay together in their home. It is also applicable if one of your loved ones is returning from a stay in the hospital and needs to be cared for once they return home.
One of the only alternatives to this would be to arrange stays in residential care homes or nursing homes, far less comprehensive in quality than private, live-in care. There is often confusion around the distinctions between live-in home care and domiciliary care.
After all, they appear to be very similar services. However, while domiciliary care consists of regular home visits by a carer throughout the day, live-in care provides constant, around-the-clock support.
What are the benefits of live-in care?
Here are some of the main reasons why people choose live-in care for their loved ones:
Consistency in day-to-day routines with additional support
Personally tailored care plans, with carers helping as much or as little as your loved one would want
Remaining in the comforting and familiar surroundings of home
Allowing your loved one to continue with the things they like to do such as hobbies and interests
Compassionate, friendly companionship and one-to-one support
Participation of you and your family members in your loved one's care
Emotional support and improved mental health
What do live-in carers do?
Carers providing live-in services can complete a wide range of day-to-day duties to help and support your loved one. Some of these services include:
Running general errands and grocery shopping
Carrying out domestic tasks and chores
Preparing clothes, laundry and ironing
Preparing meals, cooking and washing dishes
Overseeing medication routines and arranging prescriptions
Support moving around the house
Support getting out of the house for walks or light exercise
Compassionate companionship and emotional support
Help with ablutions and toileting
Caring, feeding and walking of any pets
This is just a list of the general, essential tasks and duties of the live-in carer's responsibility to help your loved one.
For those with mobility issues or complex, progressive care needs, a live-in carer really can make the difference and help to improve their quality of life.
Aside from the physical care and support these carers can provide, they can offer to carry out many other duties and personal care and assistance to your loved one.
Live-in home care is especially beneficial for those with complex care needs.
Many care agencies employ specialist carer teams with the necessary experience and training to carry out complex support.
These clinical carers are often supported in their roles by other healthcare professionals. They can carry out more specialist procedures, such as continence care, insulin injections and operate ventilators.
Companionship and Housekeeping
As well as clinical and physical support, live-in carers can offer companionship services to the people they care for.
This aims to lessen the loneliness and frustration that can arise when receiving care and support, giving your loved one a better quality of life. Live-in carers may help with:
Facilitating, arranging and taking part in the hobbies and interests of the people that they care for
Entertaining family and friends, including the preparing of any meals or food required and arranging games nights.
Managing paperwork and appointments, whether medical, business or personal, and assisting with using technology
Arranging and accompanying clients on days out, whether going for walks, drives or visiting cafes for tea and cake
Keeping clients in contact with their family and friends, whether locally or abroad, through mobility assistance or helping with technology for peace of mind
Personalised Care
The ultimate goal of a live-in carer is to improve their client's quality of life through compassionate, personalised support and encouragement of independence.
Ways in which they will do this may include:
Encouragement and assistance with mobility
Help with bedtime routines
Regular reminders to take medication
Helping with dietary and nutritional needs
Assistance at mealtimes and with other daily routines
Helping with physiotherapy and maintenance of independent activity
Ensuring that dignity is maintained through compassionate continence assistance
Ensuring the independence of personal appearances, such as styling hair, applying makeup, shaving, manicures and clothes shopping
Specialised Personal Care
Many carers carrying out live-in care roles and duties will have the necessary experience for handling most cases. In many instances, these carers have received sufficient training to undertake specialist medical care for those with complex conditions, and some could be qualified nurses.
Carers such as these will fully understand the difficulties of diseases such as dementia, arthritis, and Parkinson's.
They will know precisely how to provide the care needed by people with these conditions and empathetically comprehend the stresses and strains that these illnesses can create for people. Conditions that live-in carers can be expected to assist with include:
Dementia, by ensuring a continuity of lifestyle while remaining in a familiar environment
Parkinson's disease, helping clients to adapt to new routines and activities
People with severe physical and learning disabilities
Mental health issues, helping to regain a sense of normality and offer emotional support
Those who are convalescing after the hospital, helping those who receive care live with and adjusting to new limitations
Those undertaking rehabilitation
Palliative care by creating a comfortable environment.
Why choose live-in care?
A principal benefit of arranging live-in care for your loved ones is that they will be able to decide how much or how little support they will receive.
This gives them a greater amount of freedom while having a constant helping hand whenever they need it. In addition, the ability to remain in their home while receiving care can have untold benefits on your loved one's mental health and wellbeing.
Staying with pets and close contact with friends and family can often bring peace of mind for those with complex and life-changing conditions.
The specialist nature of live-in care means that your loved one will have an experienced and fully trained carer on hand to help them.
In addition, given that the carer will be living with your loved one while taking care of them, the care provider will be able to become an expert in your loved one's case.
This personalised and highly focussed form of care cannot be found in residential homes or nursing homes and is a singular benefit of long-term, around the clock, seven days a week, live-in home care.
Is live-in care suitable for progressive health needs?
Progressive conditions, such as MS, Parkinson's disease and dementia, can be very challenging to live with.
However, employing the services of a compassionate and experienced carer can relieve your loved one of the burden of their condition and help improve their quality of life.
As a personalised service, live-in home care is fully flexible and customisable, allowing the services your loved one receives to be changed in line with their developing condition.
Can live-in care support you after the hospital?
Research data shows that those who choose to convalesce at home after a stay in the hospital recover far quicker.
Returning home while you heal means returning to a comfortable environment where you have the freedom to relax and recuperate in your own time.
It also means that you are closer to friends, family and pets while recovering, again easing the stresses of your condition.
If you have questions about the advantages of live-in care, we hope this information has been useful to you.
We offer specialist home care services and live-in care for vulnerable adults throughout London. Get in contact today if you have a loved one that would benefit from care at home.