Is Home Care Now More Popular Than a Care Home?
Home Care vs a Care Home: What's The Difference?
At Helping Hands, we understand how difficult it can be to make choices around where you receive care. Should you move into a dedicated residential care home, rely on family and friends, or receive care in your own home? Obviously, everyone is different, and what’s right for one person is not going to suit another, which is why you should consider all of your options carefully before you make your decision.
Despite sounding very similar, there are big differences between home care and a care home. Firstly, moving out of your home may be overwhelming emotionally. Perhaps you’ve lived in your home for many years, raised a family there and enjoyed a happy life with a partner, so the thought of moving is incredibly difficult. On the other hand, you might be keen to begin a new chapter of your life in a new place, meeting new people in similar circumstances.
Existing health conditions will also dictate where you decide to receive care, such as how complex your needs are. While it is a very individual decision, it’s clear to say that, in the last few years an increasing number of people have expressed their desire to remain in their own home to receive care, rather than go into a care home.
How Home Care Has Risen in The Last 10 Years
The Homecare Association conducted a survey post-pandemic to see if people’s attitudes towards where they would prefer to receive care had changed. This survey showed that people were now more aware of the possibilities of remaining in their homes to receive care and what the likelihood was that they’d choose that in the future. Surprisingly, these choices were not made primarily because of safety concerns, rather to do with preferences around lifestyle. Instead, they focussed on the key points that Helping Hands always highlight about receiving care at home, namely being able to live the way you want (64%), remaining in control of your own choices (54%), and maintaining relationships with family and friends (53%). In comparison, safety was only cited at 47%.
Which Option is More Chosen? The Figures
According to carehome.co.uk, approximately five hundred thousand people live in care homes in the UK. The figures for people receiving care in their own home is almost double that, at nearer one million, according to homecare.co.uk. However, as no UK-wide body collects this data, and each country collects its own, the figures should be viewed as estimates.
Despite this, it’s clear that almost twice as many people are receiving care in their own homes compared to people living in care homes, which certainly speaks for itself as to people’s preferences. When you consider the benefits of receiving care at home that can’t be measured in monetary terms it’s unsurprising though, such as continuing to live with a partner, having your animals close by, sitting in your garden, and making the most of the neighbourhood you live in.
The Benefits of Home Care
Improved quality of life
Being in a place you know well, situated in an area you like, will help you remain as independent as possible, especially if you are living with dementia. This can benefit your quality of life because the layout of your house and the local area will be somewhere you recognise, which can help reduce anxiety about getting lost.
Familiar & comforting surroundings
Familiar surroundings will always make us feel less uncomfortable, as we’re more likely to recognise where we are and what we have around us. This will boost emotional wellbeing as anxiety will be reduced, which can also have a positive effect on physical wellbeing too. It will also reassure loved ones that we’re in the place we wish to be.
Cost efficiency
Care home and home care costs can vary widely depending on your circumstances and care requirements. Ultimately, it will usually come down to those things that you cannot put a price on, such as sleeping in your own bed and having loved ones and pets close by. Often though, when you consider a nursing home vs domiciliary care, care at home can cost significantly less.
Allows for retained independence
At Helping Hands, our primary motivation is to enable our customers to be as independent as possible in the homes they love. We achieve this by having highly dedicated carers who, on both a visiting and live-in care basis, provide support with every aspect of their customer’s daily lives, including housework, personal care, meal preparation, and so much more.
Care is more tailored
One of the things that our customers tell us they love about our home care services is how they are designed to fit around their individual lifestyles while being delivered on a one-to-one basis. This kind of bespoke care cannot be delivered in a care home environment because staff ratios and the number of residents prevent it.
Improved wellbeing
What’s the best way to keep you happy and satisfied with your care experience? By ensuring you remain in the place that means the most to you! Whether you have friends in the local area, you like to walk your dog in the nearby park, or you enjoy the high street for shopping and a coffee, we can help you to continue getting the most from your days.
How Do I Know Which Option is Right for Me?
The only way you’ll know whether care at home is right for you is to try it! You can chat to our friendly customer care team or your local branch staff, and they’ll do their best to reassure you and answer all of your questions. It’s understandable that you may be concerned about having someone you don’t know in your home, yet our friendly and compassionate carers quickly become the friends that our customers didn’t know they needed! It’s a good idea to sit down and have a discussion with your loved ones as soon as possible about what you would prefer and how you are going to achieve it, as even though these conversations can sometimes be difficult to initiate, the earlier you chat about potential care, the sooner you can all begin making plans.
Discover Our Industry-Leading Home Care Services Today
We’ve been delivering industry-leading care in our customers’ homes since we were established in 1989, which is just one of the reasons why we’re the UK’s most trusted home care provider. Coming to us for your visiting or live-in care means you get access to carers who are recruited, trained, and employed by us – in fact, we manage everything for you! Unlike care agencies, who’ll charge you a fee just to keep you on their books, we have no hidden costs to surprise you, everything is upfront and easy to break down. We have carers working across England and Wales and 150 branches, all owned and managed by us, which means we’re bound to have one near you. We don’t sell franchises either at Helping Hands, meaning we can maintain consistent standards at all times across our entire network.
