The Benefits of Home Care Services
No matter how much experience you have, caring for a loved one can become overwhelming.
Whether you are an individual who believes professional care is the best solution for your health and comfort or a family carer feeling a lot of emotional strain, engaging with a professional care at home service could provide the long-term support you need.
In this blog, we will explore the benefits of home care services for individual patients and family carers.
The Benefits of Home Care for Patients
Stay in comfortable surroundings
One of the most obvious benefits of home care is in the name: patients receive professional care in their own home.
This means that they don’t need to give up the place where they feel most safe and comfortable to move into an unfamiliar setting. This is particularly helpful for dementia patients, as leaving the home can cause added stress and anxiety.
Home care helps patients stay surrounded by all their memories, keep close to loved ones who live nearby, and remain part of their local community. They may even be able to keep any pets at home too.
Cost-Effective Care
Residential care services can be very expensive. Often, people have no choice but to sell their homes to cover the fees.
Care at home removes this issue for the patient and their family, as you only pay for the services you need. It can be self-funded, or covered by local authority funding, government benefits, or grants.
As care at home packages are bespoke to each patient, they can be designed to suit the budget of each person or family, as opposed to the flat fee charged for residential care.
Compassionate Companionship
According to the NHS, over two million people aged 75 or over live alone. Feelings of isolation and loneliness can increase if a loved one is experiencing long-term health issues, or perhaps they are becoming too frail to get out and about the way they used to. This can be especially difficult if family and friends don’t live nearby.
Our carers do much more than look after a patient’s body: they look after their mind too. Our companionship services can help brighten a patient’s day because we treat them as our family from the moment we walk in the door.
At the same time as providing companionship, we can also help with household tasks to make a patient’s life easier, such as:
Light housework, such as hoovering, and tidying up.
Meal preparation - preparing food that can be eaten independently or with assistance.
Escorting to appointments - including advocacy for compassionate care, if needed.
Personalised Care
No matter how complex a patient’s needs are, they can be met with a care at home package.
Our professional staff can provide a wide range of services, including:
Personal Care
Companionship
Live-in Care
Respite Care
Overnight Care
Palliative Care
Post-Hospital Support
Every care plan we design is person-centered and puts the patient first. We can assist as much or as little as needed so patients can retain a sense of freedom and independence for as long as possible.
In a residential care setting, the routine is fixed. That means that, for example, meals are at the same time each day.
With personalised care at home, we can build a schedule that suits each person best. Plus, instead of juggling the needs of several residents, the carer’s focus is on one patient the entire time.
The Benefits of Home Care for Family Carers
Flexible Care Packages
When you choose Medway Care at Home, you are choosing a partner that offers a bespoke care package for every patient.
This means that no matter what level of care your loved one requires, we can provide it.
If you need a break of a few hours during the day, we can provide companionship services so you can put yourself first. It might be that you can manage care during the day, but you need a carer on hand during the night. Or perhaps your relative’s care needs have become more complex, and a live-in carer is the best fit.
Regardless of what you need, our highly qualified staff are here to help reduce the strain.
Continuity of Care
We always strive to match your family member with one carer in the local area, instead of arranging for different people to regularly attend to them.
This way, your chosen carer can build a personal relationship with your relative, understand their needs, and provide continuity of care.
Peace of Mind
Caring can put a lot of pressure on family members - especially if you have other responsibilities like work and childcare.
Having a professional take the responsibility of care out of your hands means you can relax in the knowledge that your loved one is safe, comfortable, and being looked after.
Just because you’re taking a step back from providing care for your loved one, doesn’t mean that you can’t be involved in every step of the process. When putting together a care package, we will work directly with you to design a service that matches the needs of your relative, so you can give your input on how to move forward.
We also use an app where you can access your care plan 24/7, and receive live updates on your loved one’s condition.
We hope this blog has helped you to see some of the key benefits that home care services offer to both patients and their families.
At Medway Care Services, we have recently launched a brand-new care at home service. When you choose us to deliver care at home, we will get to know you and your needs before matching you with a highly-qualified and professional carer, who will deliver your bespoke compassionate care package.
Each of our carers is subject to PVG checks, and has to undertake extensive training before their first shift.
We can care for clients with:
Dementia
Alzheimer’s
Parkinson’s
Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Stroke
Diabetes
Cancer
Rehabilitation
Mental health support
Learning difficulties
If you would like to find out more about this service, please get in touch.
