Finding the Best Senior Care for an Elderly Parent

These days, an increasing number of folks are dealing with the dilemma of how to find the best senior care for an elderly parent. With Baby Boomers retiring, the need to find a good elder care solution is more pressing than ever before. When it comes to choosing senior care, most families consider three different choices; a nursing home, a family caregiver, an in home care agency. Let's take a closer look at each option.

Nursing Homes

For the past half century or so, nursing homes have been the choice for many families that have an elderly parent requiring care. It is a well-known option, and one that most people are well aware of. However, nursing homes have several drawbacks. For one thing, they can get very expensive in a hurry. Because the patient is living there and receiving care 24/7, the bills accumulate quickly. Unless the family purchased long-term care insurance several years ahead of time, a nursing home bill can eat up all the assets of not only the elderly parent, but in some states the family as well.

The other major challenge with nursing homes is the quality of life issue. When a person is asked to leave all their familiar surroundings and move into a strange place where they don't know anybody, there is bound to be problems right off the bat. Add to that the impersonal care received at many of these places, and often the lack of frequency of visits from loved ones, and you have a potential for a much lower quality of living than if the parent had just stayed at home.

Family Caregivers

Another senior care option that some families are able to avail of is having a family caregiver for their elderly parent. This option is great if you have a qualified person in the family that has the available time to provide the care needed. It is certainly the least expensive option, and it allows the parent to stay at home or in some cases it may be necessary to move in with the family caregiver. Either way, they are in a much better atmosphere than a nursing home or some other kind of medical facility. Aside from the fact that it is often difficult to find an available family member, there is another common issue with this option; stress and tension. It can be quite stressful for a family member to care for an elderly parent, and it can put a lot of undue tension on the relationship.

In Home Care

In home senior care has been an increasingly popular option in recent years. A caregiver from a licensed agency is assigned to care for the elderly parent in the comfort of their own home. This allows the client to stay where they are most comfortable and receive the same or better quality of care they would get in an institution. It also relieves a family caregiver of the burden of having to take care of the parent as they age. The one drawback to in home care is it can be considerably more costly than providing care on your own, but in general it is still far more affordable than a nursing home.