29 Mar What is the Difference Between Live-in Care and 24 Hour Home Care?
When an elderly parent or relative needs more care, choosing home care services can be a much better option than relocating your loved one to a nursing or retirement home. In-home senior care can help a senior cope much better with their changing circumstances. Usually, a senior will prefer to live at home rather than move to unfamiliar surroundings.
However, if more advanced care is needed than just basic assistance home care, you will usually have two options to choose from:
Live-In Care
24 Hour Care
Live-in Care
With live-in care, one caregiver is booked daily for a 24 hour period. One caregiver can be booked for a maximum of four to five days per week depending on the location. For the other days, a different caregiver will be booked. In the 24 hour period, a 4-hour break is given to the daytime caregiver and you can decide if you want coverage for these 4 hours or not. For a live-in shift, the caregiver is allowed an 8-hour sleeping break and a sleeping bed must be provided for this caregiver. Live-in care is billed at a flat rate per day and if the 4-hour break coverage is requested then the break is billed at an hourly rate.
24 Hour Care
24-hour care is different because caregivers are booked to work and are not allocated breaks during their shifts. This works by having either two caregivers on two 12-hour shifts or 3 caregivers on 8-hour shifts. During these shifts, the caregiver is not allocated a sleeping break. You can depend on circumstances, allow the caregiver to sleep during the night shift. There is a difference in the cost if the caregiver is allowed to sleep during the night or not.
The advantage of 24-hour care is that someone will be on hand at all times, even during the night, to provide in-home senior care. This can be particularly valuable for a hospice or critical care situation.
If your senior parent or relative is living at home and receiving home care services, it is important to make sure that you pick the services that will best fill his or her needs.
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