Home Care or Care Homes: What’s the Difference?
- Home Care Benefits:
- Independence and Privacy: Allows individuals to remain in their own homes with all their belongings, preserving independence and privacy.
- Personalized Support: Offers tailored support with regular visits for medical needs, cleaning, meal preparation, and shopping.
- Disadvantages of Home Care:
- Structural Challenges: Modern homes may not be designed for elderly needs, posing navigation difficulties.
- Irregular Care: Lack of on-site carers can lead to periods of vulnerability for residents.
- Advantages of Care Homes:
- Purposeful Design: Care homes are designed to provide comprehensive care services, ensuring safety and well-being.
- Responsive Support: On-site carers offer immediate assistance and support, enhancing safety.
- Social Engagement: Facilitates social interaction and community through organized activities and communal spaces.
- Accessibility and Safety: Equipped to address accessibility needs and ensure safety for residents.
- Independence and Care: Care homes balance independence with support, handling daily tasks and maintenance.
- Bespoke Care: Provides specialized support tailored to individual needs, including conditions like Alzheimer’s.
- Focused Design: Prioritizes accessibility, privacy, and safety through intentional design, catering to diverse needs effectively.
Two options remain at the forefront for elderly people needing later-life care: home-based care and purpose-built care homes. Here, we’re looking at the telling differences between the two.
Benefits of home care
With a home care arrangement, the person receiving care lives in their own home and has regular visits to ensure they have the support they need.
As well as regular medical check ups, visits can also include cleaning, meal preparation and the delivery of shopping.
One of the key benefits of choosing home care is that the resident is able to retain their independence and privacy completely; they are also able to keep the entirety of their belongings, given that there is no need to downsize.
What are the disadvantages of home care?
While this option is popular for many elderly people, there are drawbacks that can be comprehensively solved in a well-planned care home setting.
One of the key drawbacks of home care is concerned with the structure of homes themselves.
That is, most modern homes simply aren’t suited for elderly people to live in. Features such as stairs and tight corners coupled with a lack of mobility aids make most homes difficult for elderly people to navigate, even with help.
Another problem with home care is the regularity of the care offered.
Given that many home carers don’t actually live on site, there can be periods of vulnerability for the resident when the carer is away from the home. Ultimately, this makes care homes a safer option.
Advantages of care homes
A care home is purposefully designed to provide wide-ranging care services to residents from all walks of life.
The fundamental design of a care home is its biggest differentiator, and is the main reason for someone to opt for living in a care home instead of their own property.
With trained carers on site, residents can receive responsive support and care whenever it is required. For someone who might find it difficult to live alone without close, or even constant, support, this is a key aspect.
Independence and care
A good care home is built to encourage an independent lifestyle without some of the stresses of regular home life.
Things mentioned before – shopping, cleaning and meals – are also standard in a care home. Residents aren’t responsible for major upkeep, either – things like utility bills and repair of appliances.
A care home also caters to a resident’s social needs with organised trips, groups and social spaces designed into the structure of the home.
This mixture of sociability, independence and bespoke care – including specific care for residents with Alzheimer’s or severe accessibility difficulties – can mean much more than the initial freedom provided by a resident’s own home.
Accessibility is another key consideration – along with privacy and safety.
For home care, major structural changes may be needed for someone who requires specific accessibility aids.
These will be planned in as standard by a care home. It’s the ability for care homes to plan for and accommodate varying needs that sets them apart – and why focused design is essential from the beginning.
Aedifice Partnership is a leading consultancy and project management firm specializing in delivering high-quality projects across various sectors, including care homes, residential properties, education establishments, and commercial properties.
Our range of services includes project management, chartered building surveys, CDM and quantity surveying among others.
At Aedifice Partnership, we manage new care home construction as well as refurbishment projects throughout the UK.
For further details on the services Aedifice Partnership offer, just get in touch with our experienced team.