Growth of In-Home Senior Care

3 Reasons Families Fight about Senior Care

Caring for an aging parent, or elderly spouse presents tough challenges, particularly when a crisis hits and you are suddenly faced with the responsibilities of elder care. The absolute difficulty of the task, its high cost, as well as underlying family issues can bump to create a perfect storm of discontent. But when families put aside their differences and work together as a team for the best interest of their elderly loved one, they are often able to overcome this challenge.

Here are some reasons families fight about senior care:

Money Matters
Sometimes, special expenses ascend in regards to senior care that weren’t expected or planned. Other times, money just runs out. When this happens, families often fight about who should contribute, and how much they should contribute toward the costs for care.

Possible Solution: A good way to resolve this is to have a family meeting with all members present, whether in person or by phone. All costs should be laid out in the open, and members should be honest about what they can contribute. The significant thing is not to judge or criticize.

Parent Resists Care
Sometimes the whole family is on board and decides that their parent needs care, but the parent resists any change, tooth and nail. It’s understandable; people loathe giving up any independence, and place it highly among those things in life they prize most highly.

Possible Solution: When you’re trying to encourage a parent to accept a move to a senior community, make it clear that you’re not trying to “put them away.” Help your parent know your concerns and that they come from love.

Power Struggles
Family members most of the time disagrees about the type of care needed for their loved one. Extreme differences also tend to come to the forefront when end of life issues are confronted.

Possible solution: It’s vital to discuss the specific needs of your aging loved one, as well as their personal wishes. Then, your family can determine which option would provide the senior with quality care, comfort and happiness. During all discussions, it is essential to consider what each family member has to say, rather than acting out emotionally.

The most significant thing to remember with family relationships is that the only behavior you can truly control is your own. Understanding, patience, and forgiveness should be extended to siblings when a family is in crisis.

Beating the Problems of Senior Care

Looking after for an aging mother or father, domestic partner, household partner or good friend provides challenging difficulties, especially when a problem strikes and you are instantly faced with the required senior care. Perhaps your aging mother slipped, is put in the hospital with a broken hip and needs to go to a rehabilitation facility or senior care facility to recover. Care giving can also begin as a result of disturbing incidents and signs that indicate a need for lengthy lasting senior care. Perhaps your domestic partner has wandered off and went missing several times. Or a long-time buddy has lost a lot of body weight and hardly ever leaves the house. You may be the only person available to provide care. Or, you may be the linchpin of a network of close relatives and friends willing to help take care of your elderly. Whatever the situation, you are not sure of the next phase, or even the first thing to do.

Take a deep breath slowly. This may be the most important advice you receive throughout the care giving journey. All along the way, remember to stop every now and then and collect your thoughts. Clear your mind and relax. It may be challenging, but it will help maintain your mood and prevent you from falling under the weight of care giving problems. Make sure you know the senior’s birth date and Social Security number. You will need these details to access many services. Collect details about medical providers. If you haven’t done so already, collect details about your loved one’s doctors and health insurance coverage.

Another good advice is to call a family meeting. Try to get as many people as possible engaged from the start. Early feedback from them will accomplish interaction and decision-making down the line. Allow all close relatives an opportunity to show themselves and their emotions about what should be done. If possible, assign a person to be accountable for each process. These are just some steps that you can follow to avoid issues or problems when facing the task of senior care.

Senior Care Job: Preparing for an Interview

Before landing a job as a senior care giver, you will need to undergo an interview. Employers primarily want to determine if you are a perfect candidate for the position. So, how are you able to show that you are the right person for the job?

An interviewer will ask questions about your characteristics. They prefer someone who:

is responsible, trustworthy, reliable, empathetic and patient. Since seniors have limited capabilities the aforementioned characteristics are vital. Make sure you have these qualities.
is reputable, experienced, and knowledgeable. A good track record of past senior care services is a huge advantage during interviews. They might ask you about your previous client, former responsibilities, and the reason for leaving the position. Remember to put in good references too.
who has a positive attitude towards work. You will not be alone in performing senior care services, you will also work with a group of health care professionals. Having qualities that make you easy to work with and enjoyable is a plus factor. Expect questions about your personality and attitude, such as what are your weaknesses and strengths and what do you like and dislike about the job.

Also, prepare yourself with situational questions like what you will do when an emergency occurs, how you can show dignity and respect in life-ending situations, and how you handle difficult patients. If you are able to answer these questions satisfyingly, then you might be a good fit.

As the interview commences, ask the interviewer questions as well. You have the right to know what are the specific needs and personality of the patient, experiences of previous senior care givers with the said patient, schedule of tasks, and any special precautions to take with the elder.

Of course, after the interview, you will need to know if you push through with the job. Decide whether or not you want to work with your employer, the elder patient, working settings, and responsibilities you will perform.

Deciding on Senior Housing Plan

Choosing a senior house for you or your loved one is not an easy decision. It is a tough and demanding decision for you and your family. However, when there is a serious medical problem involved, you need to consider some of your options to avoid more problems. There are so many different senior housing programs out there; you just have to make a good choice. Everyone needs a healthy, safe and fulfilling home atmosphere while you age, so you need to know the best program that offers good senior care.

As we grow old, we experienced some major changes physically or simply our current situation. Planning your future housing needs is an integral part of making sure that you can still survive as you become older. Obviously, every senior differs in needs; therefore, the senior housing choice for another person might not be appropriate for you personally. You need to match the housing plan with your lifestyle, financial needs and health condition. You can also consider living with a retirement community or a nursing home where nearly all tenants are older than 65 and senior care is proven and tested.

While you age, you need some assistance with your physical needs, including activities of everyday living. This might vary from shopping, cleaning, cooking, and taking care of pets to intensive assistance with bathing, walking around, and eating. This can arise from the sudden condition, like a stroke or heart attack, or perhaps a more gradual condition that gradually needs increasing care, for example Alzheimer’s disease.

If you are living alone and far from your family, your current home can be too hard or too costly to keep. You might have health issues making it difficult to manage tasks like house work and yard maintenance. While you age, your situation will change, buddies or family might not be as close, or neighbors may move or transfer. You may not be able to continue driving or get access to public transit to be able to get together with family and buddies. Modifying your house and long-term care can both be costly, so balancing the concern you’ll need with where you need to live requires careful evaluation of your budget.

Lowering Senior Care Costs Using Technology

There is an increasing demand for Long-term Care (LTC) in the country which is estimated to reach 27 million by the year 2050; this is according to a research conducted by the Bipartisan Policy Center. LTC is given to patients with long-term or chronic diseases, mostly seniors who have complications and inability to monitor themselves. There are many existing LTC options offered to seniors like assisted living facilities and retirement homes. They offer around the clock services with equipments to monitor the patients, as needed. However, the senior care cost may be a burden to the patient and their family.

Many researches and programs have been created to find a solution to reduce the cost. The ideal situation is for the senior to stay at their houses, but the lack of equipments may hinder it from happening. According to a separate study, most of the seniors (90%) prefer to stay at their homes. This is why technology is continually being improved to make it affordable and convenient to use. Researchers are now looking for ways to improve the sensor technology where it can remotely detect the vitals and the overall health of the patient. This technology will reduce the cost since the patient will no longer stay long at the hospital for monitoring and check-up. It will likely reduce the patient’s stress in transportation.

The main purpose of the sensor is to alert the hospital whenever the patient is in an emergency; for instance of fire or a fall; but their capabilities are limited. The research makes the sensors more advanced by giving it the ability to detect the real-time health condition of the patient, making it a “smart sensor”. The sensor will send a regular report to the physician as well as an emergency report that detects abrupt changes in the health condition of the patient. Improving the sensor technology will definitely lower the cost of maintenance of long-term senior care. And it will give them a sense of independence and allow them to stay closer to their home and their family.

The impressive number of elderly people across the nation opting to stay in their own houses as they age is developing a positive impact on the economy, driving growth not only for businesses that are dedicated to various aspects of senior care, but also resulting in significant job creation. By 2020, the rankings of house wellness and individual care aides will have grown by more than 1.3 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. BrightStar Care, a full-service house care series that provides both healthcare and non-medical care to sufferers from babies to elderly people, has hired more than 23,000 people since 2011, developing 10,000-12,000 jobs each season, with programs to create 60,000 new jobs over the next five years.

In addition, according to majority of folks by the U.S. Census Bureau, the healthcare market generated $1.7 billion dollars in complete revenue this year and included nearly 17 million jobs across the United States. BrightStar Care is supporting these statistics with 258 franchised and corporate locations across 36 states. In total, BrightStar Care utilizes more than 16,000 healthcare teams, certified nursing assistants (CNAs), and home health aides (HHAs), including 2,000 RNs, 2,300 Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) and Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVNs). Nearly all adults over the age of 50 feel that staying in their own houses as they age is important, according to a latest survey by AARP. With the demand for in-home senior care rising, in addition to the fact that the in-home healthcare profession provides flexible working hours and the ability to develop strong, individual relationships with sufferers, the market is growing.

“Each year, more and more elderly people are starting the process of ‘ageing in place’,” explained Shelly Sun, Co-Founder and CEO of BrightStar Care. “At the same time, many healthcare teams are looking into alternative career options to working in a hospital. BrightStar Care is one of the only in-home healthcare care businesses that provide highly-skilled therapy to sufferers in their houses, allowing healthcare teams to utilize their skills in a non-traditional, growing sector of the market.” BrightStar Care identifies a need within the healthcare care market for homecare solutions that offer high-level, medical skills. Consumers are looking for expert and sympathetic care that only BrightStar Care provides.