Caregiver’s Toolbox Ep. 4: Assisted Living vs. Private Home Care: PROs & CONs
“Assisted Living vs. Private Home Care: PROs & CONs” on YouTube
Click here to view our Podcast Directory
Ryan:
Hello everybody my name is Ryan McEniff. I’m the owner of Minute Women Home Care and welcome to the Caregivers Toolbox, tools for everyday care giving. Today we’re going to be talking about the difference between assisted living services and private home care. There’s a misconception where families think that the two are interchangeable, assisted living and private home care provide the same services, when in actuality they really don’t.
Ryan:
Today we’re going to go over three things. We’re going to go over what those services are, what the costs are for each service, and the pros and cons for each service. We’ll start with an assisted living and we’ll run down with three. Assisted living services provide an older adult, who for the most part is mentally and physically able, a room, whether shared or private, in a community with other older adults where there are activities, food, and their housing is paid for on a monthly basis. Assisted living services do provide one on one care, but usually it’s between one and maybe three hours of private one on one care per day, enough for somebody to get ready in the morning, take a shower, get dressed, and at the end of the day take off their clothes, get in to pajamas, and go to bed.
Ryan:
The cost for assisted living services range depending on where you are in the country, but in Massachusetts where we’re located, the average is right around $5500 per month. A lot of assisted livings have tiered programs, meaning that if you’re completely able bodied, and you don’t need any extra services, you’re a tier one. As you need more and more services the cost is going to go up.
Ryan:
Some of the pros and cons of an assisted living are the pros is that you’re in a community. You’re in, you’re getting engagement, you’re dealing with activities, you’re dealing with other people, and ideally you’re going to be going out into the community and experiencing activities and events with people your own age. The community can also be a con as well because also to go into an assisted living you have to leave your home. Depending on how you look at it, you can look at that as a pro or a con. It is expensive, that obviously is private paid, but it is less expensive than other services that are out there, including private home care, which we’ll get into in a moment.
Ryan:
One of the other issues and cons of a assisted living is that there is no one on one care. If your loved one gets to a point where they need more care than an assisted living can provide two options are going to be provided for you. Either you’re going to have to leave the facility and move into a nursing home or you’re going to have to bring in private home care, and pay an additional cost to the private home care company. Those are some of the cons, but the pros are you’re living in a community where those activities. It’s a less expensive than bringing in one on one care into a person’s home, depending on how many hours a person is going to need. It can get expensive, there’s no insurances that pay for it, it’s all out of pocket costs.
Ryan:
When we look at private home care, what private home care services provide, they provide help with activities of daily living. Some examples of these ADLs are getting up in the morning, getting somebody showered, getting somebody dressed, getting their makeup or their hair done, helping them make meals throughout the day, taking out the trash. Going out and helping them with transportation and doing their grocery shopping and other chores that go throughout the day. Some of the costs that are involved with private home care, they can get expensive quickly. Depending on how many hours is really what determines how much you’re paying. This is all per hour basis. You can be spending anywhere in the United States $20-$35 per hour. In Massachusetts the average is right around $26-$27 per hour.
Ryan:
As you could imagine if you’re getting 24 hours of care per day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, it gets expensive very quickly. It will go up to $200,000 to $300,000 per year. It can be very, very, expensive to do this.
Ryan:
The pros and cons of private home care are that you have one on one engagement. That somebody is there at the drop of the dime to help your loved one in case of an emergency, or not an emergency and they just need help making a meal. The other pro about it is somebody gets to stay in their own home, which many older adults want to stay in their home as long as they possibly can. Some of the cons of private home care, like assisted living, is that it’s all private paid out of pocket. There’s no insurances that are going to be covering the services for an older adult. Additionally, one of the cons with it is that the engagement.
Ryan:
In an assisted living facility, like I mentioned, you have activities going on. You have a community there, where people are getting social engagement, talking with others, experiencing events with friends and family in a community. While with private home care that’s not generally what you’re going to be getting. It’s going to be one on one engagement. One of the cons with private home care they feel that social engagement is lacking, unless somebody is willing to go out to the senior center, or to other activities, where there are like minded people.
Ryan:
That kind of gives you an idea of, quickly, on the differences between assisted living and private home care. You can make a decision for your loved one, which one works for you best. Thanks for watching. Subscribe to The Caregivers Toolbox, tools for everyday care giving. I will see you on the next video.