How to Choose Between Elder Home Care Services and Nursing Homes

Deciding whether elder home care services or a nursing home is the right choice for your loved one is important when considering the best type and amount of care. Both options for senior care have their benefits and drawbacks. Cost is often a deciding factor, but so is the level of care needed.

According to U.S. News & World Report, while nursing home costs have continued to rise in recent years, in-home care costs have remained stable. This is good news for families whose elderly loved one needs regular assistance but not around-the-clock nursing care. Elder homecare services are charged by the hour and only provide the services your loved one needs. This keeps costs low compared to the much higher annual costs of nursing homes, especially when you consider the fact that many seniors don't actually require twenty-four-hour nursing home care.

When choosing between elder home care services or a nursing facility, most seniors say they would much rather be independent and live in their own homes as long as they are able. Home care agencies make it possible for seniors to maintain a higher quality of life while receiving the type of personalized in-home care they need.

Elder Home Care Services Vs. Nursing Homes: What's Best for Your Loved One?
The factors you need to consider when weighing the pros and cons of in-home services and nursing facilities include:

• Health: The senior's physical and mental health conditions are the most critical factors. If he or she needs skilled nursing care on a daily basis, a nursing home may be the best option. However, if he or she is relatively healthy and needs help with daily tasks, such as bathing, toileting, hygiene, shopping, cooking, and medication management, home care is a better choice.

• Quality of care: Generally speaking, your senior loved one is going to receive the same high-quality of care regardless of whether it's provided by an elder home care services agency or a nursing home. However, you should conduct thorough research and interviews with homecare agencies and nursing homes alike. Each will offer different services, benefits, conveniences, and activities.

• Cost of care: Unless money isn't an option, the cost of care is always a deciding factor when making these difficult decisions. Nursing facilities can be very expensive and, although Medicare may cover some of the costs of nursing homes, elder homecare services are almost always more affordable.

• Quality of life: Unless the senior is bedridden and requires regular nursing care, most people agree that your loved one will benefit most from elder homecare because he or she can still live at home surrounded by family and friends.

These are some of the many factors to consider when choosing between elder home care services and nursing homes. As they are critical decisions you will need to make as your elderly loved one ages, speaking with professionals about the benefits of both kinds of care is important. Evaluate your options and learn more about the type, quality, and costs of care by visiting http://www.CambrianHomecare.com or calling 877.422.2270.

10 Tips on How to Help Elderly Parents Accept Help

One of the biggest challenges baby boomers face; Mom and Dad are becoming frail and can no longer live safely on their own. They tell you that they are not going to move. Now what can you do?

It is very difficult for aging seniors to face the fact they are unable to maintain living independently at home. This can be frustrating to adult children who are worried about their parents or other elderly relative's safety and well being. Adult children often have to start providing more and more assistance as their parents or elderly relatives become increasingly frail. This causes problems for working caregivers as well as for their employers. Problems of unexpected absenteeism, workday interruptions, supervision cost, unpaid leave, reduction of hours affect employees as well as the employers of "Boomers". According to an extensive study by MetLife, reported in 2004, adult child caregivers cost employers an estimated $2110-$2441 per employee.

In addition, whatever plans established for elder-care can quickly unravel with a change in health status or unexpected absence of a paid caregiver. For example, Janet and her brother were both sharing the responsibility of their elderly mother and suddenly both had to be out of town during the same week. "Within two days we had to find other arrangements for Mom." "It was an overwhelming nightmare." "The worst part was my brother and I ended up in a huge argument."

10 Tips on How to Approach this Topic with Your Mom or Dad:

1. First assess what your parent's needs are. Are they able to maintain interior/exterior care of their home? Are they eating nutritious meals? Are they still able to drive? Are they occasionally isolated and lonely? Do they uphold their own agreements?

2. Plan ahead and start early with discussions of options. Mom is more open to a discussion if you say "In the future if you ever need more help would you want to move to an independent retirement community or would you prefer to get help at home?" If you already have a few options in mind if and/or when a crisis occurs you and your parent are not only more prepared but the parent will be more accepting of the change.

3. Couples can often manage in their own home longer than singles. Often they help each other out. One may still be driving or able to still handle the financial affairs. The average age for needing some help is eighty-three. Options range from getting help in the home to independent or assisted living communities.

4. Mobilize during a crisis. If they end up in the emergency room or with a hospital stay use the momentum of the situation to help your elderly parent see that it is time for a change.

5. Don't give up. If during your first discussion mom and dad don't want to talk about this tell them you still want to talk about it. Ask them to think about it and bring it up again and again until you can flush out major objections to the change. Janet said, "I listened to my mom's concerns about moving because the monthly cost. Once I knew this we sat down and focused on her financial situation. We found with all the amenities it was going to be about the same cost as staying at home with live in help."

6. Be honest about your feelings, capacity to help and your own concerns. Be respectful and caring as you discuss how your own children need your time and attention. Be open about what help you can provide and what help you cannot. Be understanding but firm when presenting your concerns.

7. Start touring independent living communities. No one will ever want to move if they don't see it first. It can really reduce resistance once they see how nice come of the senior living places are. If you are short on time adult children should look at several and pick out two or three that mom and dad might like best. Then take your parents to see them. It is easy to bridge into a conversation on which community they like best.

8. Communicate to them how you can help with all aspects of the move. The whole idea and the process of moving is overwhelming. They know it is beyond their current capacity to facilitate on their own. Senior move managers such as Paxem,Inc. help adult children and seniors from start to finish with the entire moving project.

9. Focus on keeping positive with your siblings or other involved family members. This can be difficult as you may feel like not everyone is doing his or her share of involvement. Hopefully you are doing what you are doing because you want to help your parent. Not everyone will be involved at the same level and you may need to accept that, ask for specific help at times or hire out for certain services.

10. Remember they are still your parents are not children. As adults, they do not like being "told" what to do or facing change. As long as they have the cognitive skills, it remains up to them and is their decision. In summary, remain positive and be persistent as in negotiating any challenge. Your parents need to be able to maintain their dignity while accepting their newly acquired limitations. It is a difficult but important skill to manage for both of you.

Why Home Care Is Better Than Nursing Homes

For many of us, the time will come when our parents are no longer able to care for themselves. Oftentimes, this leaves us with one of two choices: place our parent in a nursing home or hire Denver elder care services.

Obviously, neither choice is easy: making the choice means admitting to ourselves that the roles have been reversed. Our caretakers now are the ones who need our help.

Still, unless you or a relative are able to pick up and move in with your parent as well as offer them 24-hour care, Denver elder care services may be the ideal choice. When compared to nursing homes, elderly home care Denver offers the following advantages:

Your Parent Will Stay in the Comfort of Their Home: Home, as they say, is where the heart is. Chances are, your parent is not ready to leave it. With Denver elder care home services, your parent doesn't have to. Since home care Denver based agencies work by coming to their home, your parent can stay in the comforts they've grown to love with their cherished belongings around them.

Your Parent Can Keep Their Pet: On average, people who own pets live seven years longer than those who don't. This, along with the cherished relationship your parent may have with their cat or dog, is reason enough to go with Denver elder care home services. With home care Denver based services, your parent doesn't have to say goodbye to a furry member of their family.

Your Parent Will Feel More Independent: The older we get, the harder it is to come to grasps with our increasing dependency. But, with Denver elder care home services, this dependency is not as overt. Your parent will feel much more independent with a companion in their home than they would inside the constrains of a nursing home.

Your Parent Can Keep Their Routine: Your parent may have a routine that is important to them. With elderly care Denver based, they can keep it. Maybe they play bridge every Wednesday or meet for coffee on the third of the month. Whatever their routine, elderly care Denver based agencies will help your parent keep the routine that is important to them.

It is an Easier Decision for the Family: Putting your parent in a nursing home is a difficult decision, one that many people have a hard time dealing with. Going with elderly home care Denver based services, however, is a much easier decision. This is because Denver elder care home services improve the life of your loved one whereas relocating to a nursing home may disrupt it. This makes Denver elder care services an optimal choice for you, your family and your parent.

When the Time Comes to Care for Our Elderly Parents

Losing their independence is the most difficult thing elderly people face but as our parents age, the likelihood of this becomes greater. Often they have problems being able to meet their daily needs because of diminished abilities and their failing health. They may also need to be protected so they don't hurt themselves. Examples of this are: issues relating to the stove, i.e.: leaving a pot cooking on the hot stove, leaving a tea towel too close to the elements, or leaving an empty pan on a hot element to dry, as my mother did.

Severe problems with memory can cause other concerns for adult children. With my mother, remembering to take her medications were a concern. Phoning to remind her did not guarantee that she actually took them. Forgetting appointments can sometimes be problematic as well. Another issue that concerned me with my mother was her tendency to tell too much to phone canvassers. She also tended to send checks off to anyone who asked for money. Also of concern was her growing inability to pay her bills and keep her accounts, or even her mail, organized.

Losing their ability to safely drive hugely affects a senior's sense of independence and can often become a battle between elderly parents and their adult children. My mother, fortunately, was aware when she was unable to drive in the evenings and limited herself. She would have been a danger, not only to herself, but to others as well. She was told by medical professionals when she was unable to drive during the day. She accepted it from them whereas she would not have from her family. However, this was a huge blow to her independence. She began going downhill from there because she had always prided herself on being an independent person.

Although assisted living is a wonderful alternative for those who are unable to care for themselves, it is still another step towards losing their independence. It signifies another indication of loss of control over their own environment. Most seniors would prefer to remain in their own homes. But for many this is not feasible. Very often living with their families is not an option either. For my own mother, getting up and down my stairs became increasingly difficult for her.

Often elderly parents will not be happy with the switch in roles as adult children become, by necessity, the caregivers of their parents, depending on the amount of care required. My mother, in assisted living, enjoys my role of taking her to all of her appointments, shopping for her, doing her banking, her dishes and having lunch out occasionally.

In many families, it is one child who will shoulder most of the responsibility for the elderly parent and in many cases it is the daughters who are the caregivers. In a recent study it was discovered that in 41 percent of the cases, one of the adult children is responsible and in 3 percent of the cases, there is equal contribution between the siblings. In some cases it is proximity and other times it is willingness or availability.

Sometimes elderly parents can be very demanding and as a result adult children have feelings of guilt that they never seem to be doing enough. The question then is 'what are you reasonably able to do for your parent without neglecting other members of your family?' It is important to strike a balance without feelings of guilt. And in some cases it may be important to insist that other siblings step up and help with elderly parents if one person is having the majority of the responsibility and is making all of the sacrifices.

As parents age, it becomes increasingly difficult for both the elderly parent as well as for the adult child. And although we love our parents, it is not advisable to neglect the rest of our family, or our own health, to care for them. Some of the options are to encourage other family members to help or to look into assisted living accommodations.

Mind the Gap of Assisted Living Costs

Getting on in age seems to go hand in hand with increasing healthcare costs. As such, individuals still young at heart and body are constantly encouraged to take proactive steps in ensuring themselves as well as covered as possible for the unpredictable future. With regards to the matter of assisted living facilities, cost may not cast too great a shadow upon the lives of healthy individuals. As they are still capable of holding down a job or two, they draw in sufficient salary to pay the bills with what is left going hopefully into savings. By contributing to social security taxes from the income, they set aside a sum in anticipation of the government footing the cost of a possible cough, cold or worse in their latter age.

Whilst the plan sounds good to the average Joe and Jane, it is most unfortunate that assisted living costs are usually not covered in whole by the authorities. Short of being named sole heir in the will of a rich relative, the individual is expected to have some savings safely stashed away for a rainy day. Even if one's circumstances qualify him- or herself for additional compensation, one always needs to mind the financial gap else risk falling into bankruptcy. A combination of ailing health and financial state is certainly not to be wished upon one's worst enemy.

To alleviate the financial burden of assisted living facilities, cost is obviously a factor needing a closer look. It is worth the extra effort to check whether and how the cost is covered by state or federal regulations. In the event subsidies or waivers are allowed for residents of specific institutions, it may be worth giving those place a once through before looking at others. Since expenses involving care for the elderly can run beyond their prior contributions and insurance limits, it is not a wonder that those holding the purse strings quake at its mere mention. Costs for adult day care as compared to those with special needs obviously run up different tabs. Situations have arisen whereby assisted living costs eat into inheritance amounts leaving very little or null for the surviving family.

Whilst regular folk run into brick walls regarding this matter, those having served their country in the military are possible spared the worry. By enrolling themselves into homes approved for veterans, senior soldiers can live in assurance of receiving continual care at affordable rates.

Medicaid Qualifications For Those Who Need It

For many people, aging is a frightening process. Even at age 54, I'm a little concerned about our ability to provide for our needs once we're too old to work. I can only imagine what it's like for those on a fixed income, hearing about the prices of everything going up and up. Fortunately, we have Medicaid, so, in our old age, if we need care we can't afford, the care will be provided. This article is about how to qualify for Medicaid and the reasoning behind those qualifications.

The Reason For Medicaid: One of the biggest fears on the minds of most seniors is the fear of running out of money before running out of time. What an ugly thing to think about. When I was a chaplain in an assisted living facility, I met a number of people who had done this, and I had the privilege of helping one woman through the transition after her assets ran out. There are many assisted living centers available who only charge what Medicaid pays. It isn't luxurious living, but it's there if we need it. That's the reason for Medicaid, so we won't have to worry about running out of money before time.

Contract With The Taxpayer: In order to make Medicaid a reality, everyone who works is taxed a portion of their earnings, to pay the costs, with the understanding that, if they need it, Medicaid will be there for them. The contract is, you will be taxed to pay the medical and living expenses of those who cannot work and have no assets. In other words, for those who actually NEED help. To take money from working parents who are barely meeting their own needs to pay the bills of someone who could pay their own, is obscene and immoral, if not illegal.

Medicaid Abuse: In fact, there are many who make a tidy sum, helping elderly people hide their assets so they can use Medicaid instead of paying their own way. Oh, the lawyers say "preserve," rather than hide, but it amounts to the same thing. I've known people who did this with $ millions in assets. Now you know the kinds of friends I've had! There are doctors and lawyers who will help do this, and it may pass the legal hurtles of our government bureaucracy, but you and I know this is Medicaid abuse.

Medicaid Qualifications: The Medicaid program is to provide your needs when you can no longer do so, yourself. The specific qualifications vary from state-to-state, so I'm going to give you a general description, but here's a link to specific Medicaid qualifications for your state. A single senior can own a home as long as they live there, but once in assisted living, the home is used to pay expenses or to reimburse Medicaid. A small income (or the savings to generate that income) is usually allowed to provide for personal expenses above the cost of care. All other assets would be depleted before qualifying.

If one member of a married couple requires medical and assisted living expenses, the other member can usually keep the house, a car and a monthly income (or savings enough to generate the income) to provide household and personal expenses. All other assets are to be depleted before qualifying for Medicaid.

Although this is a painful and frightening subject, it's good to know a minimum of care is available if we need it. This care isn't something to be aspired to. If you've managed to accumulate any assets beyond the minimum, this program is not for you. There are a wide variety of care options for very reasonable prices. Trust me about this...anyone who loves you enough to be worthy of inheritance would rather you spend every penny getting the best care you can.

Free CNA Training Vs Paid CNA Certification Courses

Once you decide to become a Certified Nursing Assistant, you have two options. You can work through free CNA training classes offered through local hospitals or other medical facilities, or you can pay for a comprehensive training program. Paid courses are easily found at community colleges and through the internet, but they are also offered through other organizations in some communities.

Free training is offered by medical facilities in need of well trained nursing assistants. Some programs only last for a week or two, and are designed to give basic information needed for entry level positions within that specific company. These courses do not have much value for someone interested in becoming certified as a nursing assistant, since they typically do not teach all information and skills needed to pass the state certification test.

Free CNA training that delivers comprehensive information for someone trying to become certified can be hard to find in many communities. Most state tests include a written examination as well as a hands-on skills assessment. In order to pass that test, a nursing assistant needs considerable knowledge and mastery of basic nursing assistant skills. Larger hospitals are more likely to offer the more comprehensive training programs free of charge.

A paid certification course will teach everything needed to pass a state certification exam. These courses do not benefit any particular medical facility. Their primary goal is to prepare students to work as nursing assistants and pass their state examinations. The length of courses varies from one learning institution to another.

Many Certified Nursing Assistants receive some free CNA training and then back that up with a paid program or self study through books purchased online or through local bookstores. This combination of hands-on experience and professional instruction from a Registered Nurse will lead most beginning nursing assistants to certification.

If you are interested in becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant, start by looking at all of the opportunities available to you. Look for CNA training programs offered through local hospitals, nursing homes, and other medical facilities. Inquire about classes through local nursing related organizations. Search job ads for facilities offering free training in exchange for a period of exclusive employment. Look into paid programs online and in your local community.

Once you do your research, you can determine what works best for your future career goals. You may decide to take advantage of free CNA training, even if you have to agree to work for one employer for a given period of time. You get hands on experience and a quick entrance into the nursing field. You can always go through a paid program or study on your own with a book in order to become certified.

For others, the best route will be a paid program that trains them completely to enter the field. This leaves you open to work for whoever you want, rather than being tied to one employer.