The Benefits of In-Home Dementia Care

There are no easy decisions when one has a parent or loved one with dementia. As the prospect of care in the later stages of dementia enters the picture, families basically have three options:

• Taking care of the parent or loved one themselves
• Getting in-home care from a third party
• Moving the parent or loved one to an assisted living facility or memory care community

While every family is different and every parent or loved one with dementia has unique needs, it’s our firm belief that most families would benefit from in-home care for aging parents. Embrace, Memory Care at Home is a one-of-a-kind program that enables your loved one to live at home while staying safe and leading an engaging life.

Here are three significant benefits of in-home care as compared to the alternatives:

It enables individuals to stay in their home longer.

Say what you will, until the very last stages of dementia, one’s own home is much more familiar and comforting than living at a medical facility.

With in-home care, your loved one can stay in his or her home, filled with familiar objects and memories. They will likely experience a greater sense of independence. The help comes to them. This is a much more comforting environment for the parent or loved one, as well as for the rest of the family, who can visit as usual and in familiar surroundings, spend the night if they want to, etc.

It’s more affordable.

The average family doesn’t have the funds for 10+ years of assisted living or memory care facility fees. Even if the funds were available, most families can think of better ways of spending that money. In-home care gets you the extra help you need, but with greater flexibility — you may need someone for a few hours a day, at first, but then decide that you need them 3 full days a week or more — all these options are available to you with in-home care.

It gives you more control over your parent’s/loved one’s treatment.

While the staff at assisted living and memory care facilities are obviously professionals, when your parent moves in, in many ways you’re more “hands off” from then on which can be a benefit for some families. But with in-home care, you have input on the training and qualities of the individual who will be coming in for your parent’s care.

You can also be there to observe how your parent is getting along with the caregiver. And you can help by putting together ideas for activities or tasks that your loved one likes to do. This more “hands on” approach can be very rewarding for family members who still want to be more present in the parent’s or loved one’s life.

Want to find out more about how in-home care compares to the alternatives? Schedule a free 30-minute session with our Expert on Memory Care.